AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies confirmed that Chinese government-backed hackers accessed portions of their systems earlier this year. The White House added another, yet-unnamed telecommunications company to the list of those breached by Salt Typhoon.
The hack, which has been called the 'worst telecom hack in our nation's history,' gave Beijing-backed spies the 'capability to geolocate millions of individuals' and 'record phone calls at will,' Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, said. AT&T said the foreign spies compromised 'a small number' of its customers in the espionage campaign and added that the PRC-backed crew had since been kicked out of its networks. 'We detect no activity by nation-state actors in our networks at this time,' an AT&T spokesperson said. 'Based on our current investigation of this attack, the People's Republic of China targeted a small number of individuals of foreign intelligence interest,' the statement added. 'In the relatively few instances in which an individual's information was impacted, we have complied with our notification obligations in cooperation with law enforcement.' AT&T continues to monitor its networks and work with government officials, other telecom firms, and cybersecurity experts on the investigation, the spokesperson said. Verizon also confirmed that the Chinese intruders had accessed 'a small number of high-profile customers in government and politics.' A spokesperson told that it notified these customers, and has since 'contained the cyber incident brought on by this nation-state threat actor.' An unnamed, 'highly respected' cybersecurity company has also confirmed the containment, the Verizon spokesperson added. According to the operator's chief legal officer, Verizon partnered with federal law enforcement, national security agencies, other telecom partners, and security firms upon detecting the network activity