The US Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Senator Mark Warner, says China’s breach of the innermost workings of the US telecommunications system reached far deeper than previously described. The hackers were able to listen in on telephone conversations and read text messages, exposing critical vulnerabilities across the country.
According to Mr. Warner, the Chinese group linked to intelligence, named Salt Typhoon by Microsoft, engineered the hack over the past year. Government officials have struggled to understand what China obtained and how it managed to monitor conversations of well-connected Americans, including President-elect Donald J. Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
Initial investigations believed China’s hackers used stolen passwords to focus on telephone conversations and texts under court orders. However, recent discoveries revealed that China’s hackers exploited aging equipment and networks to gain deeper access to the country’s telecommunications system.
US officials claim the Chinese intruders had seemingly disappeared, suspending their activity to conceal their full extent. Mr. Warner disagrees, stating it’s wrong to conclude they’ve been ousted or investigators fully understood their depth of penetration.
“We haven’t found everywhere they are,” Mr. Warner said, highlighting the ongoing investigation and need for public awareness. Similar hacks in Australia and Britain led officials there to establish minimum standards, with Mr. Warner hoping this exposure would prompt stronger standards in the US.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/us/politics/china-hacking-telecommunications.html