Verizon, AT&T reportedly hacked by China – Beijing may have accessed U.S. wiretap systems

Reports indicate that Chinese government hackers accessed Verizon AT&T and Lumen (CenturyLink) networks, and may have also hacked something even more important.

Wall Street Journal first reported on the massive breach, which allegedly included the United States wiretap system.

“A cyberattack tied to the Chinese government penetrated the networks of a swath of US broadband providers, potentially accessing information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests,” their report read. “For months or longer, the hackers might have held access to network infrastructure used to cooperate with lawful US requests for communications data, according to people familiar with the matter.”

The attack is being attributed to the group Salt Typhoon, and “attackers also had access to other tranches of more generic Internet traffic.”

Such a brazen infiltration of American cybersystems was described by the Washington Post as “an audacious espionage operation likely aimed in part at discovering the Chinese targets of American surveillance.” The outlet is also reporting that a government investigation into the matter “is in its early stage.”

“Hackers apparently exfiltrated some data from Verizon networks by reconfiguring Cisco routers, said one current and one former US official familiar with the matter,” the Post wrote. “The fact that they were able to make changes in the routers without detection reflects the sophistication of the adversary but also raises questions about Verizon’s security posture, analysts said.”

“There is some indication [the lawful intercept system] was targeted,” said a United States security official, according to the Post. It has not been proven that the hackers were able to access the wiretap system, however.

“Whether the hackers got access to actual lists of federal surveillance targets or their communications—or what they might have taken—is not clear, officials said. It is also not clear whether the subjects of the surveillance at issue were targeted in domestic criminal investigations or in national security cases, such as espionage, terrorism, or cybersecurity,” reads the Post piece.

The Chinese Embassy is vehemently denying the claim of their country’s involvement in the attack, accusing the United States of fabricating evidence against them.

“US intelligence community and cyber security companies have been secretly collaborating to piece together false evidence and spread disinformation,” they said.

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