Chinese hackers are said to have attacked US listening systems to hit broadband networks
In an all-too-predictable turn of events, Salt Typhoon, a notorious Chinese state actor, reportedly hijacked government systems to breach several U.S. broadband providers and gain access to the interception portals required by U.S. law.
Research by the Wall Street Journal has revealed that the breaches included US telecom giants Verizon and AT&T, as well as ISP Lumen Technologies, where hackers may have accessed a “vast collection of internet traffic” for months, including court-ordered wiretaps collected in the name of national security.
The US has long pressured telecom companies to develop “lawful interception” infrastructure so they can access network users’ communications, but if the access systems exist, they can obviously be exploited.
All’s fair in love and backdoors
China unequivocally denies accusations that it is using hackers to access government information, saying the US concocted a “false story” to entrap China in the past.
Salt Typhoon recently made headlines for another suspected attack on US ISPs, and has been linked to other Chinese state-sponsored groups due to its name, all of which Microsoft called ‘typhoon’ – Flax Typhoon, Volt Typhoon and Brass Typhoon. who are reportedly working together to help the Chinese government achieve its geopolitical goals, including a possible invasion of Taiwan.
As technology becomes even more integrated into our daily lives, the capacity for surveillance and spyware only increases. Major telecommunications companies are forced to “collaborate” in the name of national security by building backdoors for law enforcement or turning devices into “spy machines.”
Regardless of your views on your own government using surveillance techniques on its own people, the existence of these access systems means they can be compromised by threat actors or technology companies and used without your consent.
The US surveillance machine isn’t just within the states either, as these invasions are often used against foreigners living abroad, meaning no one is out of reach of Big Brother.
To limit this, we’ve rounded up the best VPN services to keep your data private.