US says ‘Salt Typhoon’ Chinese hacking group behind major metadata theft
Al Jazeera
Senior US official says that dozens of telecoms providers around the world have been targeted as China slams cybersecurity ‘slander’.
Chinese hackers have stolen the metadata of a large number of Americans in a wide-ranging cyber-espionage campaign that has targeted at least eight United States telecom firms, as well as dozens of other countries, officials say.
Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said on Wednesday that the hacking group, dubbed Salt Typhoon, gained access to communications of senior US government officials and political figures, but that “classified communications” had not been compromised.
A senior official, speaking while US government agencies gave senators a closed-door briefing on the matter on Wednesday, said “the Chinese government” had focused on “a large number of individuals” in the ongoing campaign, which has targeted dozens of telecommunications and telecom infrastructure companies around the world, including “at least” eight US providers.
This is not the first alleged Chinese breach of US data. In October, federal authorities confirmed hackers linked to China targeted then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance, along with people associated with Vice President Kamala Harris.
US officials have previously alleged Chinese hackers hacked Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Lumen and others. T-Mobile said it does not believe hackers got access to its customer information. Lumen said there is no evidence customer data was accessed on its network.
