The cyberattack acccessed systems used for court-authorized wiretaps to collect internet traffic from millions of Americans.

Chinese government hackers penetrated the networks of several large US-based Internet service providers and may have gained access to systems used for court-authorized wiretaps of communications networks,

The breach, traced to Chinese state-sponsored hackers, may have lasted for months, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Wiretap is your weekly digest of cybersecurity, internet privacy and surveillance news. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here. Multiple telecoms giants have been hacked by a Chinese government cyber espionage unit commonly referred to as Salt Typhoon,

Hackers tied to the Chinese government compromised the law enforcement wiretap network of U.S. telecom companies, and security analysts aren't sure how bad it is yet.