Chinese Hackers Breach Ninth US Telecoms Group in Espionage Campaign (apnews.com) 40
A ninth U.S. telecommunications company has been compromised in a Chinese espionage campaign that targeted private communications, particularly around Washington D.C., White House Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger said Friday.
The intrusion, part of the "Salt Typhoon" operation that previously hit eight telecom firms, allowed hackers to access customer call records and private messages. While the total number of affected Americans remains unclear, many targets were government officials and political figures in the Washington-Virginia area.
The intrusion, part of the "Salt Typhoon" operation that previously hit eight telecom firms, allowed hackers to access customer call records and private messages. While the total number of affected Americans remains unclear, many targets were government officials and political figures in the Washington-Virginia area.
they didn't breach anything (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you think that responses should be proportional?
When the enemy knows that your response will be proportional, they know the price they will pay for acting against you. It is simply a "cost of doing business" and has little to no discouraging effect, like fines on mega-corporations.
If a disproportionate response is a potential reaction then the enemy must be willing to sacrifice everything to make any move against you. The cost/benefit analysis is very different when they do not know how hard you wi
Re: (Score:2)
Mutually Assured Destruction... End of the World.
Re: (Score:3)
Retaliation has begun. US Spies/Lobbyists have just bribed a Chinese official to sponsor a CALEA-like law for Chinese code. We used the super-reliable excuse that if they don't backdoor all their communications, then Falun Gong might GO DARK!!! FEAR!
We now wait for them to pass this new law requiring their telecommunications to do everything wrong. I'm sure they wil-- oh fuck, they voted it down already? Dammit!!
Re: (Score:2)
Nice fascist primitive mind-set you have there. Does not work to solve real problems though.
Re: they didn't breach anything (Score:1)
Because you don't know. The CiA have long had the capability to fake foreign hacks.
Re:they didn't breach anything (Score:4, Interesting)
I like to visualize it as America pointing a gun at its own foot, just in case Uncle Sam needs to hobble it for a bit. And the trigger has a string to it that leads to a lever in an unmarked building with a cheap lock on the door that 'only' every cop and agent in the nation, plus their support staff, knows about.
Hey look, to the surprise of absolutely nobody with half a brain, somebody got their hands on the easily duplicated key and decided to try the lock. Now America has a hole it its foot. Sure, China pulled the trigger and that wasn't nice... But Uncle Sam installed that trigger and pointed that gun.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. Spying on your own people is apparently more important than national security. This says really bad things about the US.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Let's not forget though that 'the enemy' is merely a tool to allow your own government to do whatever they want to you, with your uninformed 'consent' - nominally to protect you from the bad guys - regardless of your country.
Re: (Score:2)
Very much so. Obviously, we have always been at war with Eurasia.
That some useful idiot modded you down just shows how effective this strategy is on the dumb.
I'm not holding my breath... (Score:5, Insightful)
But it would be nice if this fiasco taught our elected representatives that there's no such thing as a backdoor that's only accessible to the "good guys".
Re: (Score:2)
Inconceivable!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: I'm not holding my breath... (Score:1)
What do you mean by back door, like SMS and voice calls are not end to end encrypted? Neither is Gmail, but we don't call that back doored.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably not. Too dumb, same as the voters. It may serve as a nice warning to other countries though.
"targeted private communications" (Score:2)
Unless? Duh! they are not following their own rules.
Re: (Score:2)
The government does not run its own nation-wide cellular network, of course people have service from companies that offer it.
Re: "targeted private communications" (Score:2)
Don't see any risk here! Government employees and politicians are not supposed to use private communications for government business?
Unless? Duh! they are not following their own rules.
Their personal communications would reveal travel patterns, preferences, social network, personal and family situations, all of which could be exploited by old fashioned spy work.
'Salt Typhoon' is an excellent name. (Score:2)
China will get a rude awakening (Score:2, Interesting)
People keep complaining about the upcoming sanctions against China, and how it will hurt the US more than China. And indeed, according to posts here on this site, how putting sanctions on China will only force them to become independent, stronger, and eventually outshine the US on the world stage.
This aspect, constant espionage from the Chinese government, is only one of a number of constant annoyances that the west has to put up with. (Viz: Chinese ships dragging anchors and cutting undersea cables and pow
Re: (Score:2)
Well, you seem to be unaware of history. Remember how the US hacked foreign telephone networks? Apparently not.
Your "prediction" is of the same clueless quality.
Re: (Score:2)
You realize that the West is constantly trying to hack China too, right?
And that ripping out Chinese telecoms gear and replacing it with Western equipment if just helping the Chinese hackers, right?
Re: (Score:2)
This is mostly true, so is this:
"In reality, most of the western countries are fed up with the USA's shenanigans and looking for an off-ramp to cooperation."
Whatever you do, don't fix it (Score:4, Interesting)
Our law enforcement is telling people to not use the telecommunications system that they insisted be insecure. But now that other countries are using the backdoors regularly, instead of saying "ok, telecoms, go ahead and remove the backdoors," they just tell people to use something else, which isn't designed for the purpose of being insecure. But keep the existing backdoors in place.
WTF?! Why?
Are they counting on domestic criminals to just .. not notice the public service announcements, and so to keep using unsafe communications while everyone else upgrades? Why can't we just give up and let the telecoms secure the things they've been legally prohibited from securing?
Re: (Score:2)
Government never downgrades its power over the people.
It's why I repeatedly say: Choosing a better president doesn't restore your rights.
Re: (Score:2)
Simple: They corrupted the systems to a degree that they cannot reliably or easily remove the backdoors anymore. Why do you think the Chinese found it so easy to get in?
us telcoms (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
These are US government mandated backdoors that are used for the attack.
"That you know of so far..." (Score:2)
Got a Homer/Bart meme in mind for that. Don't forget to ignore your duties as a government and/or infrastructure provider, and save as much money as possible until the bailout when you just go bankrupt worst case and move to the Cayman's or wherever.
If only we could setup automated tools to monitor or block other activities. Or that people might have warned them long ago when making a tool that spies for them, then deployed it everywhere.
Do we have a security expert who can insult them enough to change?
Don't believe you! (Score:1)
The CIA have had the ability to fake this sort of thing for a long time. So, no, I don't believe you.
There's been a significant uptick of allegations against the Chinese lately, with alleged spies that didn't do anything wrong (UK), ships supposedly cutting cables, and now this.
Imo, they are either manufacturing consent for something, or just want to make people scared so they can justify some increase in budgets.
TLS CAs are next (Score:2)
The CA system is full of swiss cheese, there's tons of attacks that work, it's just that nobody has used them much because you eventually get found out. Soon China will get bolder and not care that they get discovered.