the The white house A ninth American telecommunications company was hacked as part of a Chinese spying campaign that gave officials in the country access to Americans' private text messages and phone conversations, a US telecommunications company said on Friday.
The Biden administration said earlier this month that at least eight telecom companies and dozens of countries were affected by the Chinese hacking operation known as Salt Typhoon.
On Friday, Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger told reporters that a ninth victim had been identified after the administration issued guidance to companies on how to locate Chinese hackers in their networks.
Officials said the hackers hacked into telecom companies' networks to collect customer call logs and access the private communications of a limited number of people.
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Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, speaks during a news conference at the White House, March 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP)
FBI None of the victims have been publicly identified, but officials believe senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures are among the victims whose communications were accessed.
Neuberger said officials do not yet have an accurate sense of how many Americans were targeted by Hurricane Salt, in part because the hackers were cautious about their methods, but she said a “significant number” of victims were in Washington, D.C. And Virginia.
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Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology Anne Neuberger speaks during the daily briefing at the White House on February 17, 2021 in Washington. (Getty Images)
Officials said they believed the hackers wanted to identify who owned the devices and spy on their text messages and phone calls if they were “government targets of interest.”
The FBI said most of the victims were “primarily engaged in government or political activities.”
Neuberger said the hacking demonstrated the need for what was needed Cybersecurity practices in the telecommunications industry, which the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to consider during its meeting next month.
American and Chinese flags are placed before a meeting between US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng at Diaoyutai Guest House in Beijing, China, Saturday, July 8, 2023. (Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via Reuters)
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She also said, without providing details, that the government was planning further measures in the coming weeks in response to the hacking campaign, though she did not say what they were.
“We know that voluntary cybersecurity practices are insufficient to protect against hacking of our critical infrastructure by China, Russia, and Iran,” she said.
the Chinese government He denied responsibility for the hacking campaign.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
