AT&T, Verizon reportedly hacked to target US govt wiretapping platform

The purpose of the attack appears to be for intelligence collection as the hackers might have had access to systems used by the U.S. federal government for court-authorized network wiretapping requests.

It is unclear when the intrusion occurred, but WSJ cites people familiar with the matter, saying that "for months or longer, the hackers might have held access to network infrastructure used to cooperate with lawful U.S. requests for communications data."