Americans, your calls and texts can be monitored by Chinese spies
Last week, the Chinese hacking and spying operation known as Salt Typhoon was revealed to have targeted former president Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, as well as staffers for Vice President Kamala Harriss campaign and for Congress. The Post has reported that the hackers were able to collect audio and text messages from their targets in a wide-ranging espionage operation, which likely began several months ago.
But what is less well understood, according to six current and former senior U.S. officials I spoke with from both parties, all of whom were briefed by the U.S. intelligence community on the operation, is that the threat is much broader. The Chinese hackers, who the United States believes are linked to Beijings Ministry of State Security, have burrowed inside the private wiretapping and surveillance system that American telecom companies built for the exclusive use of U.S. federal law enforcement agencies and the U.S. government believes they likely continue to have access to the system. Millions of mobile-phone users on the networks of at least three major U.S. carriers could thus be ongoingly vulnerable to Chinese government surveillance.
The U.S. government and the telecom companies that are dealing with the breach have said very little publicly about it since it was first detected in August, leaving the public to rely on details trickling out through leaks. If millions of Americans are vulnerable to Chinese surveillance, they have a right to know now. More information needs to be shared, despite the sensitivity of the issue, the close timing to the election and what remains unknown.
The officials I spoke with, most of whom were not allowed to speak on the record because the hack is being investigated by an interagency team, described a scramble inside the U.S. government to respond to the breach. Several officials told me that targets identified by the intelligence community also include senior U.S. government officials and top business leaders.
https://wapo.st/48xLIhU
Keepthesoulalive
(575 posts)The only things in my email are advertisements.
Bayard
(24,145 posts)Could be AI'd to say anything.
catbyte
(35,763 posts)sneezing a little but they don't act sick so I'm wondering if it's something I should nip in the bud or see if it resolves on its own. I wonder if they'll check back in on Monday to see what the vet says.
CanonRay
(14,858 posts)in what my wife forgot to put on the grocery list.
NBachers
(18,129 posts)if they travel back to China to visit.
"We'd like you to come with us for a cup of tea."
getagrip_already
(17,430 posts)They are known to collect huge amounts of seamingless useless and boring information and then going through it a grain at a time, looking for anything useful or related to anything else useful.
They dont really use people anymore of course. Probsbly all ai at this point.
But that is a long standing philosophy with them.
Of course, having access and actually downloading it are different. That much data would certainly raise a flag.