iPhones potential hacked
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Evidence suggests an earlier hack of U.S. telecommunications networks by a Chinese salt typhoon may have led to the potential hacking of iPhones of two presidential campaign officials.
Whether a hack actually occurred, what data may have been obtained, or which officials were hacked have not been disclosed. The FBI is investigating claims by security startup iVerify that link the events.
According to a report in Forbes, iVerify noted anomalous behavior on two iPhones belonging to high-ranking officials of one of the presidential candidates. Settings on the iPhones were changed in “patterns not seen on healthy devices.”
The timeline of events links the potentially compromised devices to a larger telecommunications breach that occurred in October. The AT&T and Verizon networks were breached through listening portals previously used by U.S. investigators to gather intelligence on criminal behavior.
The Chinese firm Salt Typhoon had access to these listening portals for months or longer, and it is still unclear how they were used. However, the timing seems to suggest that the access could have allowed the two officials’ iPhones to be hacked.
It is unclear how the wiretapping hacks led to the iPhone security breach on the two devices. If the settings were changed arbitrarily, then the access would have to go beyond simply listening in on conversations.
The key point of contact is one of the individuals subject to the alleged iPhone hack. According to the FBI, this person was a regular target of Salt Typhoon.
The wiretapping portals existed as a backdoor for the good guys, established by law in 1994. It remains to be seen whether the FBI will realize that such a breach was inevitable, just as a backdoor in Apple’s encryption is inevitable for bad actors to crack.
The investigation is ongoing.
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