According to a top White House official, a ninth American telecom company has been proven to have been compromised as part of a massive Chinese espionage program that provided Beijing officials with access to the private phone conversations and texts of an undetermined number of Americans on Friday.
This month, Biden administration officials said that the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon had impacted dozens of countries and at least eight telecom corporations.
However, after the administration issued guidelines to businesses on how to find Chinese criminals on their networks, Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, informed reporters Friday that a ninth victim had been found.
The Neuberger upgrade is the most recent step in a large hacking campaign that has shown China’s hacking prowess, sparked anxiety among national security officials, and highlighted cybersecurity flaws in the private sector.
The hackers gained access to a small number of people’s private conversations and customer call logs by breaching the networks of telecom firms. 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.
According to Neuberger, officials are still unsure of the exact number of Americans impacted by the Salt Typhoon, partly due to the Chinese being cautious with their tactics, but a significant portion were in the Washington-Virginia region.
According to officials, the hackers’ intention was to find the phone owners and, if they were government targets of interest, snoop on their calls and messages, she added.
According to the FBI, the majority of the individuals the hackers targeted were primarily engaged in political or governmental activities.
According to Neuberger, the experience brought attention to the necessity of mandatory cybersecurity procedures in the telecom sector, a topic the Federal Communications Commission will discuss at its meeting next month.
We are aware that voluntary cyber security measures are insufficient to prevent our vital infrastructure from being hacked by China, Russia, and Iran, she said.
The hacking has been rejected by the Chinese government.
— The Associated Press’ Eric Tucker
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