So what’s the largest-ever hack in history? The largest is still probably the Yahoo hack, where, in 2013, it was revealed that over 3 billion records had been accessed. But, this week, a new hack — Salt Typhoon — has been revealed and which may be even larger in its scope [here]:
With Salt Typhoon, it is alleged that a Chinese state-back group has managed to breach at least eight US telecoms networks, including AT&T and Verizon. This may have allowed access to telephone calls, geo-location information and text messages.
One of the main reasons that the hack was successful is that text messages and calls are not fully encrypted, and which is intentional so that law enforcement can intercept them. Along with this, law enforcement can also typically gain access to the metadata of a call, such as the location and time that a message was sent or a call was made. In order to restrict access to this information, there is a backdoor in the system which should only allow US agents in, but it seems that it has also allowed others in. The “hack” could thus involve almost the entire population of the US.
