New revelations highlight the scale of surveillance on US telecom networks by hackers linked to China, potentially impacting thousands of Americans. The Wall Street Journal reports that this hacking group, referred to as “Salt Typhoon,” accessed US telecom infrastructure more extensively than previously known, with communications of “potentially thousands of Americans” at risk.
Initial details, reported last week by The New York Times, indicated that the hacking group accessed call logs and SMS messages, specifically targeting phones of diplomats, government officials, and individuals associated with presidential campaigns. Investigators suspect that Salt Typhoon, which allegedly works for a Chinese intelligence agency, focused on high-value political and national-security figures.
The Wall Street Journal now reports that Salt Typhoon maintained access to the telecom infrastructure for “eight months or more,” leveraging this extended period to potentially capture data from individuals who communicated with their primary targets. Reports indicate that the hackers limited their targets to “several dozen” high-profile figures but exploited vulnerabilities in routers used by major telecom firms, including AT&T and Verizon, giving them potential access to any customer’s phone data within these compromised carriers. Both AT&T and Verizon have declined to comment.
