A former FBI official claims that it's likely every American has been impacted by a Chinese-state-sponsored cyberattack.  China should be retaliated against.

     International law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and National Security Agency, issued a joint advisory in September warning the public that CCP-sponsored actors are "targeting" many aspects of American lives, including telecommunications, government, transportation, lodging and military infrastructure networks. The cyberattack wasn't limited to the U.S. and targeted many countries around the globe, according to the advisory. According to the international agencies, the three Chinese companies believed to be behind Salt Typhoon work for China's intelligence services, which include units in the People’s Liberation Army and Ministry of State Security.  

     Through the information gathered during the cyberattacks, the Chinese intelligence services can "identify and track their targets’ communications and movements around the world."  Cynthia Kaiser, a former high-ranking official in the FBI's cyber division, told the New York Times it's hard to envision a scenario where any American wasn't impacted by the hack.  "I can’t imagine any American was spared given the breadth of the campaign," she said.  Those directly impacted by the cyberattack include senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures whose communications were accessed, according to the FBI.  

    Pete Nicoletti, chief information security officer at Check Point, told Fox News Digital that those behind the Salt Typhoon cyberattack had unprecedented access to phone calls being placed by Americans.   Nicoletti said the Salt Typhoon hackers "established a foothold and exfiltrated data for five years," which is "almost unprecedented."  Yet the cybersecurity expert says his greatest concern is not what Salt Typhoon may target in the future, but whether the group remains embedded inside companies and agencies that still haven’t discovered the intrusion.