"Geopolitical Hacks" Push the World Toward a Global Cyber War

Cyber strikes are becoming the new status quo

In October, the US government announced it was investigating a cyber attack on US telecommunications companies, including AT&T and Verizon, by a group called “Salt Typhoon,” which has sprung to life out of nowhere. The Chinese-linked group, similar in name to other China-backed outfits like “Volt Typhoon” or “Flax Typhoon” used certain backdoors to access systems that the US government is using to conduct intelligence gathering operations. Telecom companies embedded these backdoors to comply with US government rules—like the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). One of the biggest shocks: Salt Typhoon might have had access to the US systems for months.

The fear is that US intelligence operations, ongoing and past, could be exposed to China and, through China, to the broader world of US adversaries (i.e. Russia, Iran, and North Korea).