American operators accused China of hacking attack – members of the US government were targeted

US telecommunications companies AT&T and Verizon said they no longer see activity from the “Salt Typhoon” hacking group on their networks. The Chinese group had previously hacked at least nine US telecommunications companies as part of a months-long campaign to spy on high-ranking officials.

Verizon said that after significant efforts to eliminate the incident, the “Salt Typhoon” activity on their network was completely stopped, Channel 24 reported with reference to PCMag. The company's findings were confirmed by independent cybersecurity experts.

Representatives of the companies said that they will continue to work closely with government agencies, other telecommunications companies and independent experts to investigate this incident and protect their customers' data.

Despite Verizon's statements, the company refrained from directly blaming China for the attacks. Instead, AT&T directly blamed China, saying the hackers targeted “certain individuals of foreign intelligence interest.”

Both companies notified affected customers of the incident and the measures taken.

T-Mobile also confirmed the attack was linked to “Salt Typhoon”

In late November, T-Mobile said it had detected attempts to break into its systems that originated from the network of a wireline provider connected to it. To protect itself, T-Mobile severed ties with the provider because it believed it could remain at risk of compromise.

In a statement, T-Mobile said its defenses had prevented the leak of customer information and ensured service continuity. However, the company was unable to definitively identify the attackers, whether they were the “Salt Typhoon” hackers or another group. The results of the investigation were provided to the US government.

US officials had previously called the incident “the worst telecommunications breach in the country's history.” They noted that completely eliminating the hackers required the physical replacement of thousands of outdated routers and switches in the country's telecommunications networks.