By AJ Vicens
(Reuters) – U.S. officials have added a ninth telecommunications company to the list of entities compromised by a sweeping China-linked cyber espionage operation known as Salt Typhoon, a top White House official said on Friday.
Anne Neuberger, the US deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, told reporters on a call that the unnamed telecom was added to the list after the US government shared guidance on how to detect and defend against the operation. Officials have previously claimed that the attackers targeted Verizon, AT&T, Lumen and others.
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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on December 18 urged senior government and political figures to move mobile communications to end-to-end encrypted apps as a result of the Salt Typhoon campaign, which targeted officials involved at the campaign of former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, according to reports.
Officials have said that “a significant amount of US metadata has been collected” as part of the campaign.
Chinese officials have previously described the allegations as disinformation and said Beijing “strongly combats and combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all forms.”
Senator Ben Ray Lujan, a Democrat from New Mexico, called Salt Typhoon the “largest telecommunications hack in the history of our country” during a hearing on December 11, while Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said the US “must address every vulnerability in communications networks close. .”
Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Dec. 5 that her agency is proposing rules that would require telecommunications carriers to secure their networks in light of the Salt Typhoon revelations.
Neuberger said Friday that the “Chinese were given access to networks and essentially broad and complete access,” giving them the ability to “geolocate millions of individuals, to record phone calls at will,” and that updated FCC rules could help limit its scope and consequences. consequences of future invaders.
(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
