Back in October, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) admitted they were looking into “unauthorized access to telecommunications infrastructure by actors linked to the People’s Republic of China.” These nefarious actors, collectively known as “Salt Storm,” are suspected of targeting American officials and workers in the recently concluded presidential election. However, after a few days, The Wall Street Journal reported that the group was able to reach more people than originally thought. Basically, hackers can access the data of any American customer of AT&T and Verizon. That list of carriers has grown just a little bit, because according to a new report by Journal again ReutersSalt Typhoon had also infiltrated the T-Mobile network.
Hackers are believed to have used various vulnerabilities, such as those plaguing Cisco Systems routers, to get inside the carriers’ networks. They also use AI and machine learning, Journal said, and they stayed within some of the programs they entered for more than eight months. This is enough time to get away with a lot of sensitive data – they allegedly had access to the phone lines of top US national security officials, as well as unencrypted call records and documents of their target. Hackers reportedly gained access to information collected by carriers to comply with surveillance requests from US authorities.
A company spokesperson said Journal that T-Mobile is “closely monitoring” the attack and said its systems and data “were not affected in any significant way.” They also said the carrier had no evidence that its customers’ data had been compromised in the security breach.
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