Adam Segal
Over the last few months, U.S. government officials have revealed details about a sophisticated Chinese cyber-operation called “Salt Typhoon.” The campaign, which U.S. investigators believe is connected to China’s Ministry of State Security, has targeted at least nine telecommunications and infrastructure firms in the United States, as well as other targets in dozens of other countries. Over the past year or two—investigators have not yet been able to determine the exact duration of the operation—the hackers geolocated and recorded the calls of millions of Americans and gained access to the texts and phone calls of a more select group of high-level officials and politicians, including now U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, according to Politico. Chinese-sponsored cyber-espionage is not new, but Salt Typhoon was unprecedented in its breadth. The full extent of the breach, and the degree to which hackers still have access to that information, remains unknown, but the vice chair of the Select Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner, has called the attack “the worst telecom hack in our nation’s history.”
Senior lawmakers and U.S. officials have begun using encrypted apps to make cellphone calls and send texts. The Biden administration issued guidance to infrastructure operators on how to mitigate the threats, banned Chinese telecommunications firms from operating in the United States, and convened discussions with U.S. telecom CEOs and cybersecurity firms. In his last week in office, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order that, among other things, requires companies selling software to the federal government to prove publicly that they have met cybersecurity standards. A more sustained policy response, however, will fall to Trump. Many of his staff will be familiar with the threat that Chinese hackers present, but they will be less familiar with how sophisticated and technologically capable their adversary has truly become.
No comments:
Post a Comment