If we were a serious country, the fact that Chinese hackers used backdoors to break into our entire telecommunications system and that the United States government and our top talent can’t seem to get them out would be a huge ongoing story. But who has time to pay attention to that when there’s more important things to talk about like the release of ‘Wicked’ and Meghan and Harry divorce rumors. Not to mention what someone said on The View and their reaction video in response.
So no big deal. China pulled off its most comprehensive hack yet. No solution as of yet. Government officials recommend we encrypt everything because the situation is basically hopeless.
US officials believe Chinese hackers breached at least eight US telecommunications providers in their quest to spy on top US political figures as part of a hacking campaign that has affected dozens of countries worldwide, a White House official said Wednesday.
“Right now, we do not believe any have fully removed the Chinese actors from these networks … so there is a risk of ongoing compromises to communications,” Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser, told reporters.
When is that going to happen? Who knows.
US officials are still trying to help major telecom providers evict Chinese government-backed hackers from their networks and don’t have a timeline for when that will be done, officials said Tuesday.
What should we do? Encrypt everything.
Amid an unprecedented cyberattack on telecommunications companies such as AT&T and Verizon, U.S. officials have recommended that Americans use encrypted messaging apps to ensure their communications stay hidden from foreign hackers.
In the call Tuesday, two officials — a senior FBI official who asked not to be named and Jeff Greene, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — both recommended using encrypted messaging apps to Americans who want to minimize the chances of China’s intercepting their communications.
How long has this been going on? In September we learned that it’s been going on for months. It’s now December and there’s no timetable for ending this.
Fortunately, elected officials are holding hearings.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss said last month “Salt Typhoon is the worst telecom hack in American history, and demands both a proportionate response to the Chinese Communist Party and increased accountability for U.S. corporations to prevent these intrusions.”
What exactly is a proportionate response to something like this? I’d like to see it.
Why does this keep happening? Simple.
- We keep letting it happen with no consequences
- U.S. companies rely on Chinese tech talent, outsourcing, and insourcing, and then that same ‘talent’ goes back to China with an expert knowledge of our systems, techniques, and methods.
We don’t just have a foreign enemy problem, we have a domestic enemy problem. And no one in Big Tech will talk about it or deal with it because just like Big Ag needs cheap farm labor, they need cheap labor out of China.
Our relationship with China has always been the reverse of Lenin’s famous line about the capitalists selling him the rope with which we’ll hang them. We’re buying the rope from China with which it’s hanging us.