chinese hack of telecommunications companies is significant

The news of specific political personalities being hacked was in the media in the latter days of the election cycle. Today I read in the NY Times, Emerging Details of Chinese Hack Leave U.S. Officials Increasingly Concerned that the hacking of telecommunications companies was much more extensive than originally made public.

For once it appears that it not individuals with weak passwords, but entire telecommunications hardware systems that are antiquated and have not been updated. Once again, there is no easy fix and it is the individual companies that will have to take action and invest in upgrading their hardware—which as described is no easy fix. We are talking years of work, not weeks or months and tens of millions of dollars.

We’ve heard many times about our United States infrastructure described as being failing. Bridges, ports, airports roads, etc. are all in jeopardy. That the electrical grid is ancient and not robust enough to take on the electrification process that is underway. Now we can add telecommunications to the list of cans kicked down the road in favor of quarterly profits or lower taxes.

The Piper will be paid!