FBI says several major US telecommunications companies were attacked by Chinese hackers

A joint statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) claimed that several major US telecom providers were breached in what appeared to be a coordinated attack by Chinese hackers.

expression “The U.S. Government is investigating unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China.”

Not much is known about the attack, and since the investigation is still ongoing, it is unknown which telecommunications providers were affected. The Canadian government also released a statement. warning Following China’s widespread reconnaissance sweeps of Canadian domains, it is likely probing for vulnerabilities and gathering information.

Telecommunications surveillance network breached

The joint statement continued: “After the FBI identified specific malicious activity targeting the industry, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) immediately notified the affected companies, provided technical assistance, and quickly shared information to assist other potential victims. ” “the local FBI field office or any organization that believes it may be a victim of contacting CISA.”

In early October 2024, a cybercriminal group with links to the People’s Republic of China was tracked as: Salt Typhoon managed to break into broadband providers Like AT&T, Lumen Technologies, and Verizon. In addition to gaining access to network traffic processed by these providers, the attackers also infiltrated a telecommunications system used by authorities to legally spy on criminals using wiretapping and other techniques.

As for Canada, the statement released by the government states that multiple reconnaissance sweeps have been conducted by China against targeted organizations “including Government of Canada departments and agencies, as well as federal political parties, the House of Commons and the Senate throughout 2024.”

The statement said, “They also targeted dozens of organizations, including democratic institutions, critical infrastructures, the defense sector, media organizations, think tanks and NGOs.”

The Canadian government says these scans are not an indication of compromise, but are performed to map and explore Canada’s domain infrastructure, look for vulnerabilities and plan for future attacks.

“This is the equivalent of someone walking around a building to see if it has alarms or security cameras, or trying windows and doors to see which ones are unlocked. “This is about gathering information in case they want to return to commit a crime and figuring out the best way to do that,” the statement said.

The best way for organizations to protect themselves from reconnaissance mapping and future attacks is to ensure their devices are running the latest versions. operating systems and is protected against all known vulnerabilities. Organizations may also want to make sure they use multi-factor authenticationkeeping activity logs and educating employees on common attack vectors such as phishing.

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