2024 United States telecommunications hack
On August 27, 2024, The Washington Post reported that two major internet service providers in the United States had been compromised by China.[1] AT&T, Verizon, Lumen Technologies, and T-Mobile were reported to have been affected by the Salt Typhoon advanced persistent threat linked to the China's Ministry of State Security.[2][3][4]
It was later reported that Salt Typhoon affected at least nine telecommunications firms in the U.S. and had also affected dozens of other countries.[5][6]
Impact
[edit]Presidential election
[edit]In October, Donald Trump's campaign was notified that phones used by Trump and JD Vance may have been affected by the hack as well as the staff of the Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign.[7]
Response
[edit]In October 2024, The Washington Post reported that the U.S. federal government formed a multi-agency team to address the hack.[8] In December 2024, the U.S. moved to crack down on China Telecom's cloud operations in the U.S. in response to the hack.[9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Menn, Joseph (August 27, 2024). "Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
- ^ Krouse, Sarah; Volz, Dustin; Viswanatha, Aruna; McMillan, Robert (October 5, 2024). "U.S. Wiretap Systems Targeted in China-Linked Hack". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 5, 2024. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
- ^ Volz, Dustin; Viswanatha, Aruna; FitzGerald, Drew; Krouse, Sarah (November 5, 2024). "China Hack Enabled Vast Spying on U.S. Officials, Likely Ensnaring Thousands of Contacts". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
- ^ Krouse, Sarah; Volz, Dustin (November 15, 2024). "T-Mobile Hacked in Massive Chinese Breach of Telecom Networks". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 15, 2024.
- ^ Volz, Dustin (December 4, 2024). "Dozens of Countries Hit in Chinese Telecom Hacking Campaign, Top U.S. Official Says". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 5, 2024.
- ^ Tucker, Eric (2024-12-27). "A 9th telecoms firm has been hit by a massive Chinese espionage campaign, the White House says". Associated Press. Retrieved 2024-12-27.
- ^ Barrett, Devlin; Swan, Jonathan; Haberman, Maggie (October 25, 2024). "Chinese Hackers Are Said to Have Targeted Phones Used by Trump and Vance". The New York Times. Retrieved October 25, 2024.
- ^ Nakashima, Ellen (October 11, 2024). "White House forms emergency team to deal with China espionage hack". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 12, 2024.
- ^ Sanger, David E. (2024-12-16). "Biden Administration Takes First Step to Retaliate Against China Over Hack". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2024-12-17. Retrieved 2024-12-17.