(Reuters) – A breach of telecommunications companies that the United States said was linked to China was “the worst telecommunications hack in our nation’s history, by far,” the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee told Washington on Thursday. Post.
Earlier this month, US authorities said hackers linked to China had intercepted surveillance data intended for US law enforcement agencies after breaking into an unspecified number of telecommunications companies.
The hackers compromised the networks of “multiple telecommunications companies” and stole call records of U.S. customers and communications from “a limited number of individuals primarily engaged in government or political activities,” according to a joint statement issued by the FBI and the American cyber agency. surveillance agency CISA on November 13.
Beijing has repeatedly denied claims by the US government and others that it has used hackers to access foreign computer systems.
China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Thursday evening.
There were also reports that Chinese hackers attacked phones belonging to then-presidential and vice-presidential candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance, along with other high-level political figures, sparking widespread concern about the security of the United States’ telecommunications infrastructure. .
“This is an ongoing effort by China to infiltrate telecommunications systems around the world and exfiltrate huge amounts of data,” Mark Warner told the Washington Post.
The breach went beyond what the Biden administration has acknowledged, and hackers were able to listen to phone conversations and read text messages, Warner said in a separate interview by the New York Times (NYSE:).
“The barn door is still wide open, or almost open,” he told the publication.