AT&T and Verizon also targeted by Salt Typhoon, networks are secure

Both AT&T and Verizon have confirmed they were victims of an ongoing cyberattack by Salt Typhoon. The hackers no longer have access to their corporate networks.

At the end of October, the FBI and United States Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) disclosed that they were investigating multiple unauthorized breaches to telecom operators in the US.

These attacks were carried out by members of the Chinese hacking group called Salt Typhoon, which is also known as Ghost Emperor, Earth Estries, FamousSparrow, and UNC2286.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the hackers used sophisticated methods to infiltrate American telecom companies through vulnerabilities in Cisco Systems routers.

Once they gained access to the computer systems of the telecom companies, they compromised confidential information of a limited number of government officials, the FBI and CISA confirmed.

One of the affected companies was T-Mobile. A spokesperson told the media that T-Mobile’s systems and data had not been impacted in any significant way, adding that the company was monitoring the situation closely with industry peers and relevant authorities.

According to rumors, AT&T’s and Verizon’s systems were also compromised by Salt Typhoon. However, this was never officially confirmed. Until now.

“We detect no activity by nation-state actors in our networks at this time. Based on our current investigation of this attack, the People’s Republic of China targeted a small number of individuals of foreign intelligence interest,” an AT&T spokesperson told Reuters.

AT&T is still monitoring its networks to protect customers data and continues to work with authorities to assess and mitigate the threat,

“We have not detected threat actor activity in Verizon's network for some time, and after considerable work addressing this incident, we can report that Verizon has contained the activities associated with this particular incident,” Verizon’s Chief Legal Officer said in a statement to the press agency.

China has always denied all allegations in the matter, describing them as disinformation.

T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon aren’t the only victims of Salt Typhoon. Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Adviser for cyber and emerging technologies at the White House, told Bloomberg that the Chinese hacking group has attacked nine US telecommunications companies.