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A former FBI official says it’s likely all Americans were affected by a Chinese state-sponsored cyberattack.
International law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the National Security Agency, issued a joint advisory in September warning the public that CCP-sponsored actors are “targeting” many aspects of Americans’ lives, including telecommunications, government, transportation, lodging, and military infrastructure networks.
The cyberattack was not limited to the United States and targeted numerous countries around the world, according to the advisory. According to international agencies, the three Chinese companies suspected of being behind Salt Typhoon work on behalf of China’s intelligence services, which include units of the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of State Security.
Using information gathered during cyberattacks, Chinese intelligence services can “identify and track the communications and movements of their targets around the world.”
FBI Director Patel is leading the charge to eliminate Chinese influence on American soil.
The cyber attack has affected many countries around the world. (Getty Images)
Cynthia Kaiser, a former high-ranking official in the FBI’s cyber division, told the New York Times that it was difficult to imagine a scenario in which no American would be affected by the hack.
“I can’t imagine that any American was spared given the scale of the campaign,” she said.
According to the FBI, those directly affected by the cyberattack include senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures whose communications were accessed.
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The national flags of the United States and China fly at the Fairmont Peace Hotel on April 25, 2024 in Shanghai, China. (Wang Gang/VCG via Getty Images)
Pete Nicoletti, chief information security officer at Check Point, told Fox News Digital that those responsible for the Salt Typhoon cyberattack had unprecedented access to phone calls made by Americans.
“They had complete access to the reign,” Nicoletti said. “So, you know, your grandmother calling to remind you to go shopping was not a targeted person and they’re going to listen to that call. But Trump, Vance, Kamala Harris and dozens of other U.S. government officials were specifically targeted.”
Nicoletti said the Salt Typhoon hackers “had a foothold and exfiltrated data for five years,” which is “almost unprecedented.”
Still, the cybersecurity expert says his biggest concern is not what Salt Typhoon might target in the future, but whether the group remains embedded within companies and agencies that still haven’t discovered the intrusion.
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Chinese military personnel go to a field to participate in the Golden Dragon military exercise in Svay Chok village, Kampong Chhnang province, north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
“My biggest concern is that they are still present in various organizations and are not detected,” he said. “So what worries me is not the next time these guys hack someone, but what they are doing now and who they are in.”
Discussing the December 2024 cyberattack, then-deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said hackers were working to identify the owners of various devices and then spy on phone calls and text messages if they were “targets of government interest.”
Landon Mion of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
