"We all want to see hard proof of espionage. This is absolutely not it"
O.K. But, if it was intentional, you've just given them this option for future intentional back doors. See article on how stupidity is a legal defense in America: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/04/29/donald_trump_jr_cfaa/
Maybe an investigation could could find that this was explicitly ordered. Oh wait, you want to get internal communications from a company in what country?
Well, you can't reliably hold them to any meaningful standards, and you can't prove a negative, so even if the telnet backdoor was just a bonehead move, you'll never really know.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
