Have Chinese hackers breached U.S. telecom networks used for wiretapping?
Core argument: Federal authorities and cybersecurity investigators are probing breaches of Verizon Communications, AT&T and Lumen Technologies, which a stealthy hacking group known as Salt Typhoon and tied to Chinese intelligence is believed to have carried out.
Federal authorities and cybersecurity investigators are probing the breaches of Verizon Communications, AT&T and Lumen Technologies. A stealthy hacking group known as Salt Typhoon tied to Chinese intelligence is believed to be responsible. The compromises may have allowed hackers to access information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests. Hackers still had access to some parts of U.S. broadband networks within the last week, and more companies were being notified that their networks had been breached, people familiar with the matter said. Investigators remain in the dark about precisely what the hackers were seeking to do, according to people familiar with the response. The breaches are considered by some investigators to be a possibly catastrophic security lapse that could have enabled China to spy on U.S. domestic wiretapping efforts, but others have cautioned that it is too soon to know the severity of the intrusions.


