By Surbhi Misra and David Shepardson
(Reuters) -The China-linked Salt Typhoon cyberespionage operation targeted the systems of AT&T (NYSE 🙂 and Verizon (NYSE 🙂), but the wireless carriers’ U.S. networks are now secure as they work with authorities and government officials The companies said Saturday in their first acknowledgment of the attacks.
“We do not detect activity from nation-state actors on our networks at this time. Based on our current investigation of this attack, the PRC targeted a small number of individuals of foreign intelligence interest,” an AT&T spokesperson said.
While only a few cases of compromised information were identified, AT&T was monitoring and repairing its networks to protect customer data and continues to work with authorities to assess and mitigate the threat, the spokesperson said.
“We have not detected threat actor activity on Verizon’s network for some time, and after considerable work to address this incident, we can report that Verizon has contained the activities associated with this particular incident,” the chief legal officer said. from Verizon in a statement.
A highly respected independent cybersecurity firm confirmed the containment, Verizon said.
On Friday, U.S. officials added an unnamed ninth telecommunications company to the list of entities compromised by the Salt Typhoon hackers and said the Chinese involved gained access to the networks and essentially had broad and complete access, giving them the ability to “geolocate millions of people.” record phone calls at will.”
The U.S. Department of Defense and the Federal Communications Commission did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the company’s statements. China’s Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Chinese officials have previously described the allegations as disinformation and said Beijing “firmly opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all their forms.”
Previously, officials alleged that hackers targeted Verizon AT&T, Lumen and other telecommunications companies, and stole phone audio intercepts along with a large amount of call log data.
In response to that cyberattack, on December 18 the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency urged senior government and political figures to move mobile communications to end-to-end encrypted applications.
The targets of the salt typhoon reportedly included officials connected to the presidential campaigns of Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-New Mexico, called Salt Typhoon “the largest telecommunications hack in our nation’s history” during a Dec. 11 hearing, while Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said The United States “must plug any vulnerabilities in communications networks.” “.
There is growing concern about the size and scope of Chinese hacking into American telecommunications networks and questions about when companies and the government will be able to reassure Americans on the issue.