20 votes

More US telcos confirm Salt Typhoon breaches as White House weighs in

Posted by skybrian
Tags: security.cyber, usa, china, cyberattacks, hacking.nation sponsored, salt typhoon, telecoms, att, verizon, lumen technologies, geopolitics, politics, democratic party, joe biden, data, data breaches, author.jessica lyons, source.theregister
https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/30/att_verizon_confirm_salt_typhoon_breach/

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Title
AT&T, Verizon, Lumen confirm Salt Typhoon breach
Published
Dec 30 2024
Word count
813 words

2 comments

  1. balooga
    Link
    I’m still struggling to assign meaning to this incident. Obviously it’s a big deal, and it’s been especially (grimly) entertaining to hear government officials recommending E2E encrypted messaging...

    I’m still struggling to assign meaning to this incident. Obviously it’s a big deal, and it’s been especially (grimly) entertaining to hear government officials recommending E2E encrypted messaging apps in the midst of the slow but ongoing campaign to outlaw them and install backdoors everywhere.

    But I doubt the average American is of much interest to the PRC. I suspect the targets here are politicians, members of the intelligence community, maybe high-profile execs who work with China, and possibly Chinese nationals who are pro-Taiwan (or pro-Uighur, etc.) activists and dissidents living abroad. I think the reason I’m seeing so little conversation about this online is that most people aren’t affected by it in the slightest.

    Personally if anyone’s going to get worked up about a cybersecurity incident it should be the National Public Data breach, or Equifax before it, and alarmingly every other ticking time bomb in this minefield of a surveillance capitalist data economy hellscape we find ourselves in. Feels like everyone’s just sort of collectively shrugging about the nightmare that it’s about to become for all of us.

    10 votes
  2. skybrian
    Link
    From the article: …

    From the article:

    AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies confirmed that Chinese government-backed snoops accessed portions of their systems earlier this year, while the White House added another, yet-unnamed telecommunications company to the list of those breached by Salt Typhoon.

    The digital intrusion, which has been called the​ "worst telecom hack in our nation's history," gave Beijing-backed spies the "capability to geolocate millions of individuals" and "record phone calls at will," Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, told reporters.

    …

    "We believe a large number of individuals were affected by geolocation and metadata of phones; a smaller number around actual collection of phone calls and texts," Neuberger said. "And I think the scale we're talking about is far larger on the geolocation; probably less than 100 on the actual individuals."

    Following the intrusion, the White House emphasized the inadequacy of voluntary cybersecurity measures against nation-state threats. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched a public rule proposal requiring basic cybersecurity practices for telecom carriers. The commissioners are expected to vote on the rule by January 15.

    6 votes