Under federal law, telecommunications and broadband companies must allow authorities to accommodate government requests for wiretaps due to overriding concerns like national security and law enforcement. Of these wiretaps, those used for foreign intelligence surveillance, are among the most highly classified and are used for monitoring organized crime syndicates, international drug cartels, and foreign and domestic terrorism.

According to a new report, it has been discovered in recent weeks that a hacker group named “Salt Typhoon,” of Chinese origin had been penetrating the networks of Verizon, AT&T, Lumen Technologies, and other companies for months possibly, potentially accessing information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests.

If the report proves to be accurate it would constitute a major cyberattack, striking the very heart of America’s Intelligence and Defense systems. Read more about this story on our LinkedIn page