Security Experts Have Been Warning About This Forever

It appears that the systems mandated by the US government to allow our state security apparatus to easily spy on people were hacked by the Chinese state security apparatus to spy on people.

Security experts have been saying that mandatory government back doors are a bad idea, because other people can use them as well.

QED

Chinese government hackers penetrated the networks of several large US-based Internet service providers and may have gained access to systems used for court-authorized wiretaps of communications networks, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. "People familiar with the matter" told the WSJ that hackers breached the networks of companies including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen (also known as CenturyLink).

"A cyberattack tied to the Chinese government penetrated the networks of a swath of US broadband providers, potentially accessing information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests," the WSJ wrote. "For months or longer, the hackers might have held access to network infrastructure used to cooperate with lawful US requests for communications data, according to people familiar with the matter."

These "attackers also had access to other tranches of more generic Internet traffic," according to the WSJ's sources. The attack is being attributed to a Chinese hacking group called Salt Typhoon.

The Washington Post reported on the hacking campaign yesterday, describing it as "an audacious espionage operation likely aimed in part at discovering the Chinese targets of American surveillance." The Post report attributed the information to US government officials and said an investigation by the FBI, other intelligence agencies, and the Department of Homeland Security "is in its early stages."

The Post report said there are indications that China's Ministry of State Security is involved in the attacks.

Considering the possibilities, from Daesh to the Sinaloa Cartel to whatever is left of al Qaeda, the Chinese are probably the least worrisome group to penetrate these systems. 

This is why mandatory back doors are a bad idea.