US telecommunications giant Verizon, which was targeted by the China-linked cyber espionage group Salt Typhoon, announced that it had secured its network.
In a statement given to TechCrunch on Sunday, Verizon spokesperson Richard Young said the company had “contained the cyber incident brought on by this nation-state threat actor” and had “no security measures in place on our network for some time.” “We have not detected any threat actor activity.” ”
Verizon's containment of the incident was confirmed by a “highly reputable cybersecurity firm,” the company said, but Young declined to name the third party.
The scale of the Salt Typhoon breach is not yet clear, but Verizon said the hackers specifically targeted “a small number of high-profile customers within the government.”
“Upon learning of this incident, Verizon took several important steps to protect our customers and networks, including partnering with federal law enforcement and national security agencies, industry partners, and private cybersecurity companies. ” said Verizon Chief General Officer Vandana Venkatesh. . “After extensive work to address this incident, we can report that Verizon has contained activity related to this specific incident.”
AT&T also admitted to securing its network after it was targeted in the Salt Typhoon hacking campaign, according to the report.
“At this time, we have not detected any state-actor activity within our networks. Based on our current investigation into this attack, the People's Republic of China has targeted a small number of individuals with foreign intelligence interests. Reuters quoted an AT&T spokesperson as saying. The company added that the Chinese-backed hackers were targeting “a small number of individuals with foreign intelligence interests.”
This is the first time Verizon and AT&T have acknowledged being affected by the Salt Typhoon campaign. News first broke in October that hackers had penetrated the networks of the nation's largest telephone and internet companies to collect information about American citizens.
U.S. officials said earlier this month that at least eight carriers were targeted, including Lumen (formerly CenturyLink) and T-Mobile. On Friday, Ann Neuberger, the vice president's national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, said a ninth victim had been identified, Reuters reported.
AT&T and Lumen did not respond to requests for comment.
Neuberger did not name the newly identified victims, but one of the nine telecommunications breaches included an administrator account with access to more than 100,000 routers. He said he was involved.