8 US Telecom Firms Affected by Chinese Hacking Campaign
A White House official announced on December 4th that “Salt Typhoon,” a Chinese hacking group, breached eight American telecom firms and organizations in dozens of other countries. Though the White House does not believe these hackers compromised “classified communications,” it reports that they stole the metadata of a “large number” of Americans.
US Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger shared more details about the hacking campaign, which officials first disclosed in October. Neuberger explained that Salt Typhoon accessed the communications of senior government officials and influential political figures. She reiterated that the White House “[doesn’t] believe any classified communications have been compromised.”
An unnamed senior US official told reporters, “We believe a large number of Americans’ metadata was taken.” When asked for clarification, the official added, “We do not believe it’s every cell phone in the country, but we believe it’s potentially a large number of individuals that the Chinese government was focused on.”
Metadata does not include call content. It covers details such as call duration, timing, and the phone numbers involved. Even without actual content, capturing large amounts of this data can reveal valuable information to third parties.
Neuberger noted, “Right now, we do not believe any [of the targeted firms] have fully removed the Chinese actors from these networks, so there is a risk of ongoing compromises to communications.” Senior US officials have not provided a specific list of other affected countries, saying only that the number is in the “low, couple dozen.”
Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu denied the accusations, stating, “The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cybersecurity to smear and slander China.”
The attack comes amid heightened cybersecurity tensions involving the Chinese government. Last year, a former ByteDance employee alleged that the Chinese Communist Party accessed TikTok user data to gather information about Hong Kong protesters.
