T-Mobile was also infiltrated by China-linked telecom hackers

Back in October, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) admitted that they are looking at “unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors associated with the People’s Republic of China.” These bad actors, collectively known as the Salt Typhoon, allegedly targeted US officials and employees in the recently concluded presidential election. However, after a few days The Wall Street Journal reported that the group had access to many more people than first thought. Essentially, the hackers could access the data of any American who is an AT&T and Verizon customer. This list of carriers has expanded a bit, as according to a new report Magazine and ReutersSalt Typhoon also infiltrated T-Mobile’s network.

Hackers are believed to have used various vulnerabilities, such as those affecting Cisco Systems routers, to penetrate the carrier’s network. They also used AI and machine learning, Magazine said, and remained inside some of the systems they infiltrated for more than eight months. That’s enough time to get rid of a bunch of sensitive data—allegedly, they were able to access the phone lines of high-ranking US national security officials, as well as the call logs and plaintext of their targets. Hackers were also reportedly able to access information collected by carriers to fulfill surveillance requests from US authorities.

This was reported by a representative of the company Magazine that T-Mobile is “closely monitoring” the attacks and said its systems and data were “not significantly impacted.” They also said the carrier found no evidence that its customers’ information was compromised due to the security breach.