China-backed hackers infiltrated wiretap systems of multiple U.S. telecom and internet providers, reportedly seeking to collect intelligence on American citizens. This revelation has raised alarm in the security community.
Wiretap systems, required by a 30-year-old U.S. federal law, allow a small number of authorized employees access to sensitive customer data, including internet activity and browsing history. These systems, now compromised, highlight long-standing concerns about their vulnerability.
Security experts had long warned about the risks of legal backdoors in telecom systems. Many saw this breach as an inevitable outcome of such vulnerabilities being exploited by malicious actors. Georgetown Law professor Matt Blaze remarked that this scenario was “absolutely inevitable.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, the hacking group, Salt Typhoon, accessed systems used by major U.S. internet providers like AT&T, Lumen, and Verizon. The group reportedly collected large amounts of internet traffic, and a U.S. government investigation is now underway.
The hackers' goals remain unclear, but experts believe the breach could be part of a larger Chinese effort to prepare for potential cyberattacks in the event of conflict, possibly over Taiwan. The intrusion reinforces the dangers of security backdoors.
Riana Pfefferkorn, a Stanford academic, pointed out that this hack exposes the risks of U.S. wiretap systems, arguing that these measures jeopardize citizens’ privacy rather than protecting them. She advocates for increased encryption as a solution to these vulnerabilities.
The compromised wiretap systems are part of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), a law enacted in 1994 to help the government access telecom data through lawful orders. However, this system has become a target for hackers and malicious actors.
After 9/11, U.S. surveillance laws expanded wiretapping to collect intelligence, sparking an entire industry dedicated to facilitating these operations. Yet, the extent of government access to private data was only exposed in 2013 by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Post-Snowden, tech giants like Apple and Google began encrypting customer data to prevent unauthorized access, even from government agencies. However, telecom companies have been slower to follow suit, leaving much U.S. phone and internet traffic vulnerable to wiretapping.
Governments worldwide continue to push for legal backdoors into encrypted systems. In the EU, for example, proposed laws aim to scan private messages for illegal content, raising security concerns among experts.
Signal, the encrypted messaging app, warned of the dangers of backdoors, pointing to the Chinese hacking incident as an example of why such measures pose severe cybersecurity risks. Meredith Whittaker, Signal’s president, stressed that backdoors cannot be restricted to just "the good guys."
Blaze called the CALEA law a cautionary tale, emphasizing the dangers of building security systems with inherent vulnerabilities.