US telecommunications giants AT&T and Verizon say they have secured their networks after being targeted by the China-linked Salt Typhoon cyber group.
In a statement provided to TechCrunch on Monday, AT&T spokesman Alexander Byers said the company does not detect “any activity by nation-state actors on our networks at this time.”
Verizon spokesman Richard Young said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch on Sunday that the organization has “contained the cyber incident caused by this nation-state threat actor” and has not detected any threat actor activity on its network. “for some time. .
Verizon’s handling of the incident has been confirmed by a “highly respected cybersecurity firm,” the company said, but Young declined to name the third-party organization.
While the extent of these Salt Typhoon breaches is not yet known, AT&T said the Chinese-backed hackers targeted “a small number of individuals of foreign intelligence interest,” adding that it was aware of “relatively few instances” of which individual’s information was compromised. .
Verizon said the hackers specifically targeted a “small number of high-profile government customers.”
“Immediately after learning of this incident, Verizon took several key actions to protect its customers and its network, including partnering with federal law enforcement and homeland security agencies, industry partners and private cybersecurity firms,” Vandana said. Venkatesh, CEO of Verizon. in a statement. “After considerable work to address this incident, we can report that Verizon has contained the activities related to this particular incident.”
This marks AT&T and Verizon’s first recognition of their influence from the Salt Typhoon campaign. News first broke in October that hackers had compromised the networks of some of the largest telephone and Internet companies in the US to collect information on US citizens.
US officials said earlier this month that at least eight telecommunications providers were targeted, including Lumen (formerly CenturyLink) and T-Mobile. On Friday, Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, said the ninth victim had been identified, according to Reuters.
Neuberger, who did not name the newly identified victim, said one of the nine compromised telecoms involved an administrator account that had access to more than 100,000 routers.
Updated with comment after publication by AT&T.
