In an attack that may have lasted “months or longer”, the Chinese hacking group “Salt Typhoon” compromised the networks of key US internet suppliers, including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen. Salt Typhoon accessed the federal government-mandated surveillance systems that allow internet providers to intercept domestic electronic information related to criminal and national security investigations. It’s unclear if systems for monitoring foreign intelligence were also compromised. 

There is no such thing as end-to-end encryption with a “backdoor” that only lets the good guys in. Even assuming that governments would not extend the scanning of encrypted communications to any sort of minor criminal offense in the future, implementing a backdoor amounts to creating a weakness that compromises the entire system. And the Salt Typhoon attack on the United States surveillance systems clearly demonstrates that if “authorized personnel” can access a backdoor, so can hackers.