Security Breach Exposes U.S. Wiretap Systems to China-Linked Hackers

A report in The Wall Street Journal on Saturday reported that Chinese hackers broke into the network of a major U.S. broadband service provider and obtained information about the wiretapping system being used by the federal government, according to the journal.

The U.S. telecom industry recently experienced a major cyberattack involving Chinese hacker groups infiltrating its networks, gaining access to highly sensitive wiretapping data.

However, it was not as severe as the NPD breach earlier in 2017. This attack targeted companies such as Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies, among others, giving unauthorized access to critical systems used for court-authorized wiretaps – a vital tool used for law enforcement surveillance – meaning that users could access their accounts without authority.

As a result of the intrusion, the hackers had in their possession this data for months, which raised concerns regarding the depth of the intrusion and its implications for national security and individual privacy, as well as the future of our country.

These hackers had been identified by U.S. authorities as being part of a Chinese cyber espionage group. It has brought renewed attention to the vulnerability of American broadband networks and the risks that they pose to the nation’s security and surveillance systems as tensions between the two countries have already reached a high point over cyber operations.

This article has been indexed from CySecurity News – Latest Information Security and Hacking Incidents