As part of a massive Chinese espionage program, a ninth U.S. Telecom Company was verified to have been hacked, giving Beijing officials access to the private texts and phone conversations of an undetermined number of Americans, a senior White House official said Friday.
At least eight telecom companies and dozens of countries were impacted by the Chinese hacking spree known as Salt Typhoon, according to Biden administration officials this month.
On Friday, however, Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser, informed reporters that a ninth victim had been found following the administration’s distribution of guidelines for businesses on how to find Chinese criminals within their networks.
The Neuberger upgrade is the most recent step in a large hacking operation that has shown China’s hacking prowess, sparked anxiety among national security officials, and revealed cybersecurity flaws in the private sector.
The hackers gained access to the private communications of a small number of people, according to officials, and obtained customer call records by breaching the networks of telecommunications providers.
Officials think that influential political personalities and top U.S. government officials are among the people whose conversations were obtained, even though the FBI has not publicly named any of the victims.
Due in part to the Chinese being cautious about their tactics, Neuberger stated on Friday that officials did not yet have an exact estimate of the total number of Americans impacted by Salt Typhoon, but that a “large number” were in the Washington-Virginia region.
According to officials, the hackers intended to find the owners of the phones and, if they were “government targets of interest,” snoop on their calls and messages, she claimed.
Laptops 1000According to the FBI, the majority of the individuals the hackers targeted are “primarily involved in government or political activity.”
According to Neuberger, the Federal Communications Commission will discuss the episode’s emphasis on the necessity of mandatory cybersecurity procedures in the telecom sector at a meeting next month.
She added, “The government is planning additional actions in the coming weeks to respond to the hacking campaign,” although she did not specify the actions.
To prevent China, Russia, and Iran from hacking our vital infrastructure, she stated that voluntary cyber security measures are insufficient.
The Chinese government has denied any involvement in the breach.
