China-linked Salt Typhoon group that breached multiple US telecoms compromised more firms than previously known, WSJ says.
The China-linked cyberespionage group Salt Typhoon targeted more US telecoms than previously known, as The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to WSJ, wich cited people familiar with the matter, the Chinese cyberspies also compromised Charter Communications and Windstream.
The threat actors exploited vulnerabilities in network devices from security major vendor, including Cisco and Fortinet.
Last week, a White House official confirmed that China-linked APT group Salt Typhoon has breached a ninth U.S. telecoms company as part of a cyberespionage campaign aimed at telco firms worldwide.
“A White House official said Friday the US identified a ninth telecommunications company impacted by a wide-ranging Chinese espionage effort and that further steps are planned to curb cyberattacks from Beijing.” reported Bloomberg.
China-linked APT group Salt Typhoon (also known as FamousSparrow and GhostEmperor) and has been active since at least 2019 and targeted government entities and telecom companies.
White House cyber adviser Anne Neuberger revealed that the new victim of Chine-linked APT was discovered after Biden administration’s released guidance to detect their activity.
In early December 2024, President Biden’s deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said that China-linked APT group Salt Typhoon had breached telecommunications companies in dozens of countries.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the senior White House official revealed that at least eight U.S. telecommunications firms were compromised in the attack.
The Salt Typhoon hacking campaign, active for 1–2 years, has targeted telecommunications providers in several dozen countries, according to a U.S. official.
“At this time, we don’t believe any classified communications have been compromised,” Neuberger said.
The deputy national security adviser said China accessed extensive metadata from targeted Americans while seeking specific communications, focusing regionally on government and political figures.
Lumen last week announced that the Salt Typhoon APT group, was locked out of its network, TechCrunch reported. The company added that it is not aware of a data breach.
Recently, US carriers AT&T and Verizon also reported they have secured their networks after cyberespionage attempts by the China-linked Salt Typhoon group.
Early December Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. issued a joint advisory to warn of People’s Republic of China (PRC)-linked cyber espionage targeting telecom networks.
“The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD’s) Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), Canadian Cyber Security Centre (CCCS), and New Zealand’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ) warn that People’s Republic of China (PRC)-affiliated threat actors compromised networks of major global telecommunications providers to conduct a broad and significant cyber espionage campaign.” reads the joint advisory.
The government agencies released a guide that advises telecom and critical infrastructure defenders on best practices to strengthen network security against PRC-linked and other cyber threats.
The government of Bejing denied responsibility for the hacking campaign.
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Pierluigi Paganini
(SecurityAffairs – hacking, China)
