FBI confirms Chinese hackers accessed US government official devices, networks

Date:
Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:03:00 +0000

Description:
Salt Typhoon's espionage campaign has been confirmed by the FBI and CISA.

FULL STORY

A joint statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has confirmed broad
and significant cyber espionage campaign with links to the Peoples Republic 
of China successfully breached numerous commercial telecommunications
organizations. 

The infiltration of these communications networks, believed to be the group
tracked as Salt Typhoon, has allowed the threat actors to gain access to
customer call records data as well as the private communications of a limited
number of individuals within the US government.

The joint statement has also confirmed the group managed to successfully
infiltrate a US wiretap system used by authorities to submit requests 
pursuant to court orders.

ISPs and telecoms compromised by Salt Typhoon 

In late September 2024, Salt Typhoon targeted several US internet service
providers in a reconnaissance scan that is believed to assist in 
vulnerability hunting for potential use in later attacks. In early October
2024, it was also reported the compromise affected a number of
telecommunications companies such as AT&T, Lumen Technologies, and Verizon. 

Now, it appears that the issue is more widespread than first thought, with 
the Wall Street Journal reporting that the group may have had access for
months or longer, citing people familiar with the matter. 

This access may have allowed them to harvest internet traffic from internet
service providers that count businesses large and small, and millions of
Americans, as their customers. 

Salt Typhoon has also been targeting Canadian organizations, with wide
sections of the government also subjected to reconnaissance scans, as well as
dozens of organizations, including democratic institutions, critical
infrastructure, the defence sector, media organizations, think tanks and 
NGOs, the Government of Canada said in a statement . 

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
continue to render technical assistance, rapidly share information to assist
other potential victims, and work to strengthen cyber defenses across the
commercial communications sector, the joint statement concluded. We encourage
any organization that believes it might be a victim to engage its local FBI
field office or CISA.

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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/fbi-confirms-chinese-hackers-accessed-us-governm
ent-official-devices-networks

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