Chinese Salt Typhoon cyberespionage targets AT&T, but networks secure, carrier says By Reuters

By Surbhi Misra

(Reuters) – The China-linked Salt Typhoon cyber espionage operation targeted AT&T ( NYSE: ) systems, but the wireless carrier’s U.S. networks are now secure as it works with law enforcement and government officials, the company said on Saturday in its first in recognition: from attacks.

“We do not observe any activity on our networks by nation-state actors at this time. Based on our ongoing investigation into this attack, the People’s Republic of China has targeted a small number of individuals of foreign intelligence interest,” an AT&T spokesperson said.

While only a few instances of compromised information were identified, AT&T was monitoring and restoring its networks to protect customer data and continues to work with authorities to assess and mitigate the threat, a spokeswoman said.

On Friday, US officials added a ninth unnamed telecommunications company to the list of entities threatened by the Salt Typhoon hackers and said the Chinese involved accessed the networks and essentially had broad and complete access, enabling them to “locate millions of individuals; record phone calls on demand.”

The US Defense Department and the Federal Communications Commission did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment outside of normal hours. China’s Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.

Officials previously claimed that hackers targeted Verizon (NYSE: ), AT&T, Lumen and other telecommunications companies and stole phone audio intercepts as well as large amounts of call recording data.

In response to that cyberattack, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on December 18 urged top government and policymakers to move mobile communications to end-to-end encrypted applications.

The targets of Salt Typhoon were reportedly officials associated with the presidential campaigns of Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

Chinese officials have previously dismissed the allegations as misinformation and said Beijing “resolutely opposes and combats all forms of cyber-attacks and cyber-tragedy”.

There is growing concern about the scale and scope of the Chinese hacking of US telecommunications networks, and questions about when the companies and the government will be able to reassure Americans on the matter.