Written by Surbhi Misra
(Reuters) – The China-linked Salt Typhoon cyberespionage operation targeted AT&T's (NYSE:) systems, but the wireless carrier's U.S. networks are now secure because it works with law enforcement and government officials, the company said on Saturday in its first admission. From attacks.
An AT&T spokesperson said: “We have not detected any activity by nation-state actors in 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.”
Although only a small number of cases of compromised information have been identified, AT&T has been monitoring and remediating its networks to protect customer data, and continues to work with authorities to assess and mitigate the threat, the spokesperson said.
US officials on Friday added an unnamed ninth telecommunications company to the list of entities compromised by the Salt Typhoon hackers, and said the Chinese involved had access to the networks and essentially had broad and complete access, giving them the ability to “geo For millions of individuals. To record phone calls as desired.
The US Department of Defense and the Federal Communications Commission did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment outside normal business hours. The Chinese Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Officials previously claimed that hackers targeted Verizon (NYSE:), AT&T, Lumen and other carriers, stealing phone audio intercepts as well as a trove of call history data.
In response to this cyberattack, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on December 18 urged senior government and political figures to move mobile communications to end-to-end encrypted applications.
Salt Typhoon's targets have reportedly included officials linked to the presidential campaigns of Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
Chinese officials had previously described the allegations as disinformation, and said Beijing “firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cybertheft in all forms.”
There is growing concern about the scale and scope of China's reported hacking of US communications networks, and questions about when companies and the government will be able to reassure Americans about the issue.
