Another US telco breached by Salt Typhoon as AT&T, Verizon acknowledge compromise

Nine U.S. telecommunications firms were confirmed by U.S. officials to have been compromised by Chinese state-backed threat group Salt Typhoon as part of its sweeping cyberespionage operation, with the newly-added unnamed entity’s networks breached to facilitate geolocating activities for millions of individuals, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, AT&T and Verizon — which were among the eight telecommunications companies initially disclosed to be targeted by Salt Typhoon — announced that they have already eliminated the threat of the Chinese attackers from their networks following efforts conducted alongside law enforcement and government officials.

“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,” said an AT&T spokesperson.

Both developments come after U.S. government officials and other politicians were urged by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to adopt end-to-end encrypted mobile messaging apps after Salt Typhoon’s attacks were revealed to have targeted the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump.