FILE PHOTO: A Verizon logo is seen on a van in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 22, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
WASHINGTON: The Chinese-linked Salt Typhoon cyberespionage operation targeted AT&T and Verizon’s systems, but the wireless carriers’ US networks are now secure as they work with law enforcement and government officials, the companies say in their first acknowledgment of the attacks.
“We detect no activity by nation-state actors in our networks at this time.
“Based on our current investigation of this attack, the People’s Republic of China targeted a small number of individuals of foreign intelligence interest,” an AT&T spokesperson said.
While only a few cases of compromised information were identified, AT&T was monitoring and remediating its networks to protect customers data, and continues to work with authorities to assess and mitigate the threat, the spokesperson said.
“We have not detected threat actor activity in Verizon’s network for some time, and after considerable work addressing this incident, we can report that Verizon has contained the activities associated with this particular incident,” Verizon’s chief legal officer said in a statement.
An independent and highly respected cyber security firm has confirmed the containment, Verizon said.
Last Friday, US officials added a ninth unnamed telecom company to the list of entities compromised by the Salt Typhoon hackers and said the Chinese involved gained access to networks and essentially had broad and full access, giving them the capability to “geolocate millions of individuals, to record phone calls at will.”
Chinese officials have previously described the allegations as disinformation and said Beijing “firmly opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all forms.”
Officials previously alleged hackers targeted Verizon, AT&T, Lumen and other telecom companies, and stole telephone audio intercepts along with a large swath of call record data.
In response to that cyberattack, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Dec 18 urged senior government and political figures to move mobile communications to end-to-end encrypted apps. — Bloomberg
