China Hacked America's Wiretap System. And They're Probably Still Inside

#The FBI's lawful-intercept backdoor got pwned by China

This was the 2024 story that should have ended the debate about government mandated encryption backdoors forever. It didn't, but it should have.

In 2024-2025, Chinese state hackers known as Salt Typhoon compromised at least 9 major US telecom carriers including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. By August 2025, over 200 companies across 80 countries were in the incident's blast radius. Calls, texts, metadata for top US political figures. All of it compromised.

The entry point was the part that should make your blood run cold. CALEA. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. A 1994 US law that required every US telecom to build wiretapping backdoors into their infrastructure so American law enforcement could intercept calls. Salt Typhoon used those exact backdoors.

The backdoor is the front door. That's the entire story of Salt Typhoon.

#What they accessed

The hackers gained the ability to:

• Track millions of Americans' locations in real time through cell tower data
• Record phone calls by accessing the lawful intercept infrastructure
• Read text messages including those of Trump and Harris campaign staff during the 2024 election
• Access call metadata showing who contacted whom, when, and for how long

They got in using stolen employee credentials and a 7-year-old unpatched Cisco vulnerability. Once inside, they moved laterally through the wiretap infrastructure that carriers were legally required to maintain.

#The irony

The U.S. government mandated that telecom companies build surveillance backdoors. A foreign government walked through them. This is the exact scenario that cryptographers and privacy advocates have warned about for decades: any backdoor built for the "good guys" will eventually be found by the bad guys.

#Still inside

As of late 2025, the Senate Commerce Committee reported that telecom companies still haven't proven the intruders are fully evicted. The FBI recommended Americans switch to encrypted messaging apps like Signal for sensitive communications. an extraordinary admission from the agency that has spent years lobbying against encryption.

#What this means for you

• Your phone calls and texts through traditional carriers may have been intercepted
• Encrypted messaging (Signal, iMessage, WhatsApp) wasn't compromised. only traditional phone/SMS
• Location data from cell towers was accessible, regardless of phone settings
• This isn't theoretical. It happened to millions of Americans including presidential campaign staff