A long-running Chinese cyber-espionage campaign has the NSA baffled. Since they can’t stop or prevent it, they held a big briefing for telecom execs at the White House. Anyone with anything sensitive to say is urged to do it on a verified secure line. The feds have identified at least some of the targets. Names everyone would recognize, like Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Jared Kushner and Eric Trump. Since they were bugged, the people they talked to were compromised as well.
Chinese burrowed deep
All the “top telecom executives” were dragged to the White House on Friday for a briefing on Chinese cyber-espionage. A whole slew of national security officials admitted they have a huge problem and begged for help from the industry.
They’ve known for a long time that China has been running a targeted campaign against “some of the most senior U.S. political figures in the country.”
They assembled the tech management to inform them that Chinese hackers “burrowed deep” into some of them and had obtained ability to “spy on phone calls and text messages.” They’re sneaky, too “and have proved difficult to kick out of some networks.”
CNN managed to corner a few of the attendees on their way out the door for comments. The companies hit include AT&T, Verizon and Lumen.
The NSA was reportedly begging the technical experts from the phone companies to “advise” the administration “on how it could boost its defenses against sophisticated hacks.” A major part of the meeting was a free cross-sharing of “intelligence on the operation with one another.”
Joe and Kamala’s handlers are jealous that the Chinese knew more about what was going on in Trump’s campaign than they did. Back when the “Kenyan” was in charge, they (allegedly) had Trump Tower totally wired.
Biggest cyber challenge
The hack, Democrats are embarrassed to admit, “is shaping up to be one of the biggest cyber and national security challenges facing the incoming Trump administration.” They can pretty much guarantee anyone in federal government who could have stopped the Chinese infiltration and didn’t will be instantly fired.
This, Senator Mark Warner points out, is “by far” the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history.” That’s an amazing statement to hear from a Democrat representing Virginia. He apparently takes his job as chairman of the intelligence committee seriously. He could be buttering up to Trump in an effort to keep it.
One of the tidbits which leaked out of the meeting is the admission that “the full scope of the hack, who it affects and its impact on national security” are questions they don’t have any answers to.
Those aspects, the spooks sheepishly acknowledge, “are still being investigated.” The current count shows just under 150 victims were bugged by the Chinese, “most in the Washington, D.C., area.” Those have been “notified.”
It gets a lot worse, they concede. “All of those victims have likely called or sent texts to numerous people, meaning the number of records accessed by the hackers is likely far greater.”
Senator Warner confirms that the Chinese “could listen to the calls of specific targets for certain periods of time.” The Pooh Bear was probably devoted to new Donald Trump releases like they were his favorite podcast. Elon Musk is sure to be on that list, though he wasn’t named.
