AT&T and Verizon declare their networks secure amid cyber attack from Typhoon Salt

Three months later reports have emerged on a cyberattack dubbed Salt Typhoon that targeted Internet service providers and eavesdropping infrastructure in the US, two of the largest telecommunications companies say they have made progress in protecting their networks against the threat.

AT&T and Verizon released statements over the weekend addressing Salt Typhoon for the first time since working with federal law enforcement and other entities. AT&T said in a statement that based on its investigation, China had targeted “a small number of individuals of foreign intelligence interest” and that the company was working to protect customer data.

Verizon, meanwhile, said it had “contained the cyber incident caused by this nation-state threat” and that it had “not detected any threat activity” on its network for some time. He added that a third-party security firm confirmed the restriction.

In late September and early October, reports first described the Salt Typhoon attacks, prompting the FBI to warn that certain types of messages, such as RCS text messages between iOS and Android phones, may be at risk.

It now appears that Salt Typhoon was a more targeted attack than previously thought, although the data and personal information of hundreds of millions of customers could have been at risk.

“In this incident, a small number of high-profile customers in government and politics were specifically targeted by the threat,” Verizon said in its statement. “These customers have been notified of the activity.”

Both Verizon and AT&T noted that they are partnering with government and law enforcement agencies, telecom industry partners and private cybersecurity firms.

“In the relatively few cases where an individual’s information has been affected, we have met our notification obligations,” AT&T said.

Over the weekend, a ninth company affected by the hack was said to have been identifiedbut the White House did not release the name of the company.

T-Mobile reiterated Monday that it is not one of the nine named by the government, referencing blog post from late November.