Chinese hackers infiltrate US telecom giants, raising concern over national security
- In Reports
- 03:48 PM, Oct 07, 2024
- Myind Staff
A group of highly skilled hackers believed to be linked to the Chinese government, have infiltrated several US telecommunications companies over the past few months. According to multiple sources, the likely goal of the infiltration has been to gather sensitive information related to national security.
The two sources stated that the US investigators believe the hackers may have accessed wiretap warrant requests, but they are still investigating what information the hackers might have taken. According to the sources, US internet and broadband providers Lumen, Verizon, and AT&T are among the targets. US officials have expressed concern about the potential damage that the hacking may have done to national security, as they were only recently made acquainted with it. Investigators have connected the most recent sophisticated hack to China, which targets US federal agencies.
The hack coincides with Washington-Beijing tensions over cyber espionage and other critical national security issues. US telecom companies, the backbone of phone and internet communications, are the custodians of massive amounts of caller and user data. As part of criminal and national security investigations, US law enforcement agencies obtain warrants granting them access to particular portions of that data.
Beijing would be very interested in some of those investigations. Chinese government agents have been charged by the US government in recent years for allegedly hacking American companies and political dissidents and harassing Chinese nationals on US soil. Both Lumen and AT&T chose not to comment. Several requests for comments from Verizon were met with no response. Both the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment.
Chinese hackers backed by Beijing denied breaking into US telecom companies, labelling the claim as "a distortion of the fact" made by the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC. US officials were accused by embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu of "politicising cybersecurity issues to smear China." According to two sources, US officials have briefed the Senate and House intelligence committees on the Chinese hacking operation. Cybersecurity specialists from Mandiant, a Google-owned company, and Microsoft have been assisting with the hacking investigation.
According to sources briefed on the matter, investigators looking into the hacks have been astounded by the hackers' proficiency, tenacity, and capacity to penetrate computer networks. The Chinese hacking group in question is referred to as Salt Typhoon in the cybersecurity community. A spokesperson from Microsoft said, “We track Salt Typhoon and have seen activity consistent with public news reports. When we see nation-state activity, we provide customers with information to investigate as appropriate.”
However, US officials and private experts claim that the Chinese government has access to numerous other hacking teams that are capable of conducting espionage or disrupting computer networks. According to FBI Director Christopher Wray, there are 50 to 1 more Chinese government-sponsored hackers than FBI cyber personnel. US officials also claimed that a different hacking group supported by the Chinese government has been hiding out in US transportation and communication networks, waiting to take advantage of this access to thwart any US reaction to a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
The unclassified email accounts of senior US diplomats were breached by yet another Chinese group last year, CNN reported, just before Secretary of State Antony Blinken's highly publicised visit to China. China has increasingly accused the US government of carrying out cyberattacks against Chinese organisations in an attempt to influence public opinion in the face of specific accusations made by the US government.
Information operations and hacking are frequent topics of discussion in bilateral meetings. When the two men met in California last year, Chinese leader Xi Jinping assured US President Joe Biden that China would not meddle in the 2024 presidential election, according to a report by CNN.
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