Verizon and AT&T breached in major Chinese cyberattack

A Chinese state-sponsored hacking group, known as Salt Typhoon, has reportedly breached the networks of major U.S. broadband providers, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies. The cyberattack may have persisted for months, reports state, and this is no small deal. It is being treated as a serious national security threat at the moment. The hackers potentially gained access to systems used for lawful wiretapping requests, and this has raised serious concerns about U.S. intelligence and communications data being compromised.

The breach was recently discovered, but its full extent is still under investigation by the U.S. government and private cybersecurity firms. Investigators believe the hackers targeted network infrastructure to intercept internet traffic, possibly affecting millions of Americans. There are also indications that service providers outside the U.S. may have been impacted as well.

In response, Verizon has set up a "war room" at its Ashburn, Virginia, facility, working with the FBI, Microsoft, and Google’s Mandiant (a cybersecurity firm specializing in threat detection, incident response, and security consulting) to assess the breach. While U.S. officials have not yet confirmed whether the attackers accessed lists of surveillance targets or their communications, the incident was serious enough for President Joe Biden to be briefed, reports state.

The Salt Typhoon campaign, active since 2020, is part of a broader Chinese espionage effort, with indications that China’s Ministry of State Security may be involved. The FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies are still investigating the scope of the intrusion and what sensitive information may have been exfiltrated. Microsoft, along with other cybersecurity firms, is assisting in determining the extent of the data compromise.