I think the media is dropping the ball from hammering home just how bad this is for national security and world politics. Banning tiktok is superfluous in a world where every device can be compromised, every telecom is compromised, and government agencies are unable to mitigate attacks.
The reality is that the follow up to this information exposure is never connected to the outcome. How many government agents have been compromised using the OPM hack data? nobody knows. How many politicians/corporations intimidated via blackmail?
How have these hacks changed the outcome of world events?
It's amusing that the TikTok ban is being hyped up as solving the problem. Banning TikTok won't solve a thing, nor will banning much from China.
We need a re-think of what it means to use technology in a connected world. Actually prioritizing security is the only fix, and the private sector rarely has a reason to do this beyond compliance needs, and the government is limited for a myriad of other reasons..
Rest assured, the FBI/other agencies will still push for backdoors for investigative purposes without publicly acknowledging that these can be used by malicious actors, too.
To really top things off: wait until they leverage the ability to purchase data from data brokers in the US to build profiles on individuals with elevated access to target. That's capitalism, baby!
The letter: https://legacy.www.documentcloud.org/documents/25472740-lett...
The Verge suggests NYT is the source (5 points, no comments) [0] , but it doesn't mention the letter that Reuters has.
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42553233