Chinese Hackers Breach Ninth US Telecoms Group in Espionage Campaign (apnews.com)
- Reference: 0175775499
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/12/27/1846207/chinese-hackers-breach-ninth-us-telecoms-group-in-espionage-campaign
- Source link: https://apnews.com/article/united-states-china-hacking-espionage-c5351ef7c2207785b76c8c62cde6c513
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.
[1] https://apnews.com/article/united-states-china-hacking-espionage-c5351ef7c2207785b76c8c62cde6c513
I'm not holding my breath... (Score:4, 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!
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The Chinese are going to tell half of Washington what the other half is up to, exactly as this was designed to do.
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.
"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.
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)
Makes me chuckle every time.
China will get a rude awakening (Score:5, 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 power lines, fentanyl and other drugs, illegal immigration, unfair trade practices.)
In reality, most of the western countries are fed up with China's shenanigans and looking for an off-ramp to cooperation.
If China can't act civilized within the set of civilized countries, then China will be cut off from world trade. I've yet to find any convincing argument that says that this will be good for China.
And yet, the constant annoyances from China continue.
Whatever you do, don't fix it (Score:3)
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?
us telcoms (Score:1)
SO How are the US telcom's being punished for having such poor security? Targets need to be punished when they are hacked. Until they do it easier to offer people credit monitoring if they hack become known. I have 5 or 6 hack letters. WHY? Who is being held to blame when a company doesnt want to make their sites secure. Yes I know hackers are good and state sponsored but companies should be held liable.
they didn't breach anything (Score:3, Insightful)
except the backdoors put in place by our awesome government
Re: (Score:1)
Makes you wonder, why isnt this an offense and treated as such? If we know 100% that the Chinese government hacked out country, why dont we drop bombs on an airport or a power station as a deterrent to future hacks?
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In what world is that a proportional response?
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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
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Mutually Assured Destruction... End of the World.
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> Makes you wonder, why isnt this an offense and treated as such?
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:3)
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, Chi