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Authorities are still working to discover exactly what data may have been obtained by the hackers.
By: Georgia Sweeting, Total Telecom
A Chinese hacking group, reportedly connected to the country’s government, has breached several U.S. telcos in recent months, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday citing sources familiar with the matter.
The sources suggest that telecoms and broadband providers, including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen, were among the targets of these attacks.
Investigators believe these hackers may have gained access to confidential data, via wiretap requests from federal agencies.
The full scope of the breach is still being assessed, with major tech firms like Microsoft and Mandiant supporting the investigation.
The hacker group responsible for breaches, known to cybersecurity professionals as “Salt Typhoon,” is known to have links to the Chinese government.
The incident adds to growing concerns over cyberattacks linked to China, with tensions already strained between the two countries over espionage and security issues. According to sources in the Wall Street Journal report, data accessed by the hackers could include that related to both criminal and national security matters.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington has denied the claims, calling them a “a distortion of fact” and a political attempt to “smear” China.
The affected telcos, along with agencies such as the FBI and Justice Department are yet to comment.
Geopolitical tensions between the US and China have intensified in recent years, with IT technology becoming a key battleground, encompassing telecommunications, semiconductors, AI, and more. The US government is particularly concerned about the implications of Chinese advancements in technology that could impact national security, intellectual property, and economic competitiveness.
Former President Donald Trump launched the first major move against Chinese tech in 2019, during his term, with sanctions against Huawei. Here, U.S. companies were banned from doing business with the Chinese giant without a license. President Biden then upheld the sanctions, and tightened restrictions on the sale of semiconductors for 5G devices.
Back in June, the U.S. government launched an investigation into Chinese telcos China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom due to concerns that the firms could provide U.S. data to the Chinese government via their U.S. cloud and wholesale routing services.
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