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Cyberattack: Hackers Stole ALL Americans' Data! What Now?
Sep 16, 2025
A massive cyberattack has potentially exposed the data of every American citizen. Cyber security expert Eric Cole breaks down the scope and severity, revealing the long-term risks and what you can do to protect yourself. #cybersecurity #hacking #dataBreach #privacy #securityTips
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0:00
Hackers targeted political figures like
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Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Kla Harris.
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And officials now say it's likely that
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every single American may have had their
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information stolen. The foreign agents
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were able to read encrypted text
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messages, tap call records, and listen
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in on audio recordings. Telecom
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telecommunication giants like Verizon,
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AT&T, and T-Mobile are just some of the
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company's attacks. So, that gives you a
0:26
scope of what we're talking about here.
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Joining us now to discuss the severity
0:30
of the cyber attack is CEO of Secure
0:32
anchor and former CIA hacker Eric Cole.
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Boy, you've had a quite the career and
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you're a great person to talk to about
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this, Eric. You know, what's what do you
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see as the significance of this attack
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as it relates to national security? I
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mean, I I think we're all concerned
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about did they get our social security
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numbers? Did they get personal
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information? But what about national
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security?
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Yeah. To me, it's a wakeup call because
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we knew for a while that the Chinese
0:59
were very, very advanced and launching
1:01
these attacks. Soul Typhoon has been
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going on for six years and it's actually
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not directly run by the government.
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There's three Chinese corporations that
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are funded by the government that are
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launching these attacks. Imagine
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companies with thousands of employees
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where their only job seven days a week
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is to target America, target our
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information, and target our data. So
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yes, this is very very concerning
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especially when you look at getting
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access to the president's cell phone,
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the vice president's email and other
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political information. This is very very
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damaging and something that we need to
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take seriously and start making cyber
1:37
security a top priority.
1:39
Okay. So you were a hacker with the CIA.
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I mean I could talk to you for hours
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about that. I'd like to learn more. Um
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but you know how hard is it? How
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difficult is it to pull something off
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like this of this magnitude? We're
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talking about nearly every American
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possibly. Uh tell us about how they do
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it.
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The the scary part and I wish it wasn't
1:58
true. It's a lot easier than you
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realize. It's a lot simpler to access
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that information and data because just
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think of how much information we're
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storing online and giving away for free.
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Most people when they're using social
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media, their accounts are public. That
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means everyone, including the Chinese,
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North Korea, Russians, can gather and
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get all of that information without even
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having to hack. And then we're using old
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passwords. A lot of our systems are
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patched out of date. So the reality is
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it's a lot simpler and easier for them
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to get access to the information. The
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bigger question is what are they going
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to do with all this information? Because
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imagine data on every single America
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American. That's a lot of information,
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right? That's a lot of data. So the
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bigger concern is what is the longer
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term inference attack that they're
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trying to do by gathering all of that
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data,
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right? And then when we talk about every
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American, I mean, you got to wonder what
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they're looking for, you know, Joe in
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Oklahoma, I mean, what are they looking
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for uh when you're going down to, you
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know, just the average person uh posting
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pictures about their their kids and the
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soccer games?
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The the big thing there is really on
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financial fraud because if I if I can
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get his information essentially to open
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up a credit card you need social
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security number you need address. You
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need phone number and a lot of these you
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can open up like you've probably gone to
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retail stores and you're checking out
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and they're like oh we'll give you 10%
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discount if you'd open up a credit card
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very easy very quick and usually if you
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stay under $3,000 it doesn't get
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detected right away. So, not only the
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Chinese trying to steal information, but
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they're financially driven. So, the
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average person's social security number
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so they can open up accounts, drive up
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credit, and do financial fraud is one of
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the primary drivers.
3:47
Wow, that is really scary. Uh, you know,
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Russian and North Korean actors have
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also have this long history of
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committing cyber crimes against the US,
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right? When we go back and look at
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history and leaders from all three
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countries met this week for China's
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military parade in Beijing with Trump
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posting on True Social, quote, "May
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President Xi and the wonderful people of
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China have a great and lasting day of
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celebration. Please give my warmest
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regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim
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Jong-un as you conspire against the
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United States of America." All right, so
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we've got that. Uh, you know, what do
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you think? Is is US intelligence able to
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compete with these forces? So, what do
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you make of uh Trump's post there?
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Yeah, he he is spot on. The only thing I
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would have added to his post was he
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should have said conspire against
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America in cyerspace because because
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that's really what they're talking
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about. I mean, th this is terrifying.
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The two most dominant players when it
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comes to hacking and attacks against the
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US are Russia and China. They're
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advanced. They're sophisticated. They
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have significant money. And the fact
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that they're talking and teaming up is
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hard because yes, we have great uh
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military and intelligence folks and
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people defending our nation. But when
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you're taking the two top tier entities
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in cyber attacks and combining them
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against America, it's not really a fair
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battle.
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All right. If you could give me like a
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10-second answer for the average person,
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what should we do? Do we need to change
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our passwords all the time?
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Uh, so don't use passwords. Use
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two-factor authentication,
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okay?
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Don't click on links and make all your
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social media profiles private, not
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public.
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All right, we'll take that in mind.
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Cyber security expert Eric Cole, thank
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you very much for joining us on this
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really important topic. Thank you. We'll
5:27
check back in with you. And Crime Con
5:29
2025 is in full swing.
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