Chinese hackers access US telecom firms, worrying national security officials

Washington DC: A group of Chinese hackers infiltrated multiple US telecommunications firms in search for sensitive information on issues like national security, CNN reported citing multiple sources.

The US investigators identified US broadband and internet providers AT&T, Verizon and Lumen among the targets of the recent slew of cyber-attacks launched against the US.

Notably, as the backbone of internet and phone communications, US telecom firms hold enormous volumes of caller and user data.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, denied that Beijing-backed hackers had breached US telecom firms, calling that information "a distortion of the fact." Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu accused the US of "politicizing cybersecurity issues to smear China", CNN noted.

The matter has been taken up by the highest echelons of the US administration. US officials have briefed the House and Senate intelligence committees on the Chinese hacking campaign, two sources said. Cybersecurity experts from Microsoft and Google-owned firm Mandiant have been helping to investigate the hacking activity.

Seeking to sway public opinion in the face of detailed US government allegations, China has increasingly accused the US government of conducting cyberattacks against Chinese organizations.

According to the report, people probing the hacks have been struck by the hackers' skill, persistence and ability to burrow into computer networks, the sources briefed on the matter said. The Chinese hacking team in question is known in the cybersecurity industry as Salt Typhoon.

"We track Salt Typhoon and have seen activity consistent with public news reports," a Microsoft spokesperson told CNN. "When we see nation state activity, we provide customers with information to investigate as appropriate."

Hacking and information operations are a regular point of contention in bilateral meetings between the US and China. Chinese President Xi Jinping told US President Joe Biden that China would not interfere in the 2024 presidential election during the meeting in California last year, as reported by CNN.

The rise in such attacks comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over cyber-espionage and other high-stakes national security issues.

Previously, FBI's Director Christopher Wray had also weighed in and said that Chinese hackers were threatening critical infrastructure in the US and overseas.

Various leading think tanks such the Center of Strategic and International Studies have time and again raised the issue of harm caused by such cyber attacks that eventually threaten the global digital public infrastructure and other key assets across various areas. (ANI)

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