AT&T, Verizon reportedly hacked to target US govt wiretapping platform
U.S. broadband providers AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies were hacked by the Chinese group Salt Typhoon, potentially compromising government wiretapping systems. Investigations into the breach and its impact are ongoing.
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Multiple U.S. broadband providers, including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies, have reportedly been hacked by a Chinese hacking group known as Salt Typhoon. The breach appears to be aimed at intelligence collection, potentially allowing the hackers access to systems used by the U.S. federal government for court-authorized wiretapping requests. The exact timing of the intrusion is unclear, but it is believed that the hackers may have maintained access for several months. The attack was discovered recently and is currently under investigation by the U.S. government and cybersecurity experts. Salt Typhoon, which has been active since at least 2019, is known for targeting government entities and telecommunications companies, particularly in Southeast Asia. The group has previously exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server to gain initial access to networks. Investigators are exploring various avenues for how the recent breach occurred, including potential vulnerabilities in Cisco routers, although Cisco has stated that there is no evidence of their equipment being involved. The full impact of the breach, including the amount and type of data exfiltrated, is still being assessed.
- AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies were hacked by the Chinese group Salt Typhoon.
- The breach may have allowed access to U.S. government wiretapping systems.
- Salt Typhoon has been active since 2019, targeting government and telecom sectors.
- Investigations are ongoing to determine the breach's impact and access methods.
- Cisco routers are being examined as a potential entry point for the hackers.
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13 comments"Security researchers also found that the threat actor attacked hotels, engineering companies, and law firms in Brazil, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Canada, Israel, France, Guatemala, Lithuania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Kingdom."
but that isn't in the main article and they don't say where they got that information from?
If we're not going to accept Seymour Hersch's anonymously-sourced claim that the US Navy was involved in the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines, why accept this claim at face value either? For an example of reporting of a major hacking incident not reliant on anonymous government sources, see the OPM hack:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/us/breach-in-a-federal-co...
Notably, the WSJ source report doesn't include any mention of reporters attempting to get official statements from the relevant US government agencies and being rebuffed. That smells like plausible deniability of the kind involved in the bogus Iraq WMD leaks.
Sorry for the newbie question, but isn't most internet traffic end-to-end encrypted, these days? So what information would the hackers, or for that matter the "lawful intercept" system , have been able to steal? I do see how accessing routers would let intruders launch malwares, spoof other sites for phishing attacks, etc.
Thanks to mobile networks, information can be anything from live internet traffic to live location information of cars and phones. However, I suspect if someone did a hack that juicy, carrier SOCs would've noticed immediately. This type of infrastructure isn't exactly hooked up to a public IP address somewhere.
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Chinese government-linked hackers infiltrated U.S. telecom firms, accessing sensitive information. The Chinese Embassy denies allegations, while U.S. officials and cybersecurity experts investigate the skilled hacking group, Salt Typhoon.
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