The Canadian government and the FBI say they know about malicious activities targeting telecommunications companies across Canada. This attributes to the invasion of the Salt era, a Chinese-backed hacking group.
In a joint recommendation late Friday, the federal government said at least one unnamed Canadian carrier was hacked in mid-February this year, and hackers operated three Cisco routers to allow stealth traffic collections from the network.
The federal government says separate investigations suggest that salt typhoon targeting is “wideer than the communications sector.”
Active since at least late 2024, Salt Timson previously targeted US phone giants and internet providers, and more recently data center hosts, as part of a wide range of espionage activities aimed at gathering information about US government officials. Salt Typhoon is one of China-related hacking groups that are believed to be preparing for China to launch a future Taiwanese invasion by 2027.
A joint Canada-FBI consultation said the hackers will “almost certainly” last “for the next two years” to target Canadian organizations.