"Hackers weren’t able to monitor or intercept anything encrypted, according to the Times, which means that conversations over apps like Signal and Apple’s iMessage were probably protected. But end-to-end encryption over texts between Apple devices and Android devices, for instance, aren’t encrypted in the same way, meaning they were vulnerable to interception by Salt Typhoon, according to the Times.
(...)
As for the targets, the Post reports fewer than 150 people have been identified as having their text messages or phone calls monitored and the FBI has been in contact with them. Most of the people are in the Washington DC area, which makes sense if the hackers were interested in political targets. But 150 people can communicate with a lot of people, even in a short period, so the number of targets could be in the “millions,” according to Warner. You get the sense U.S. authorities have no real idea how many people have been impacted, given the scope of the intrusion.

The details about how the hackers were able to push so deeply into U.S. systems are still scarce, but it has something to do with the ways in which U.S. authorities wiretap suspects in this country with a court order. The monitoring of phone calls wasn’t 24/7, according to Warner, but he didn’t seem to elaborate on what that meant to the Times."

https://gizmodo.com/china-wiretaps-americans-in-worst-hack-in-our-nations-history-2000528424

#USA #CyberSecurity #StateHacking #Surveillance #PoliceState #China

"Decisions by the White House and by Republican lawmakers about spyware will have implications across a variety of policy areas that Trump and his associates are upending and that reach far beyond Washington. In recent years, an array of states, including Texas, Florida, and California have reportedly purchased spyware and other surveillance technologies; legislators and regulators will dictate whether that trend continues. Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, at least two states have already used private personal data to prosecute people for getting abortions. That practice could expand with more widespread and affordable access to this technology.

Trump has threatened his political enemies, reposting comments calling for a military tribunal for Liz Cheney and observing that General Mark Milley’s behavior would have once been punishable by “DEATH!” He has also demonized the free press, suggesting, for example, that he wouldn’t mind if people were to “shoot through the fake news” and that journalists who protect sources should be imprisoned. These comments target the populations that have been most vulnerable to overzealous spyware campaigns in other Western democracies. “When this happens in an authoritarian system, it is horrific but unsurprising,” Seaford, the technology executive who was hacked during Greece’s spyware campaign, told me. “When it happens in a democracy, however, it creates a sense of disorientation: ‘Could this happen to me? Here? Really?!’ And yet it can, and it does.”"

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-technology-the-trump-administration-could-use-to-hack-your-phone

#USA #Trump #Surveillance #StateHacking #Spyware #PoliceState