Global Encryption Day – The Ultimate Hack: How Salt Typhoon Broke Phone Security and What It Means for Cyber Policy

Watch the Webinar Now!

EPIC’s hosted a webinar on October 21, 2025 on Global Encryption Day with the generous support of the Internet Society Foundation. The webinar examined recent attacks that have exposed our phone and text messaging systems, how these devastating attacks exploited encryption backdoors Congress created 30 years ago, and discusses what it will take to secure these systems again.

Our panelist were:

• Dr. David Mussington – Professor of the Practice at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy & the former CISA Executive Assistant Director 
• Susan Landau – Professor of Cybersecurity and Policy at Tufts University 
• Nitin Natarajan – former Deputy Director of CISA, Owner of NN Global LLC 
• Alan Butler – Executive Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center

Our panelist were engaged in a discussion on the 2024 Salt Typhoon attack which involved a group of China-backed hackers that cybersecurity leaders have called the most significant cyber incident in U.S. history. They talked about the roots of the breach, the private sector and government response, and policy lessons for the future of encryption and communications security.