2024 United States telecommunications hack explained

On August 27, 2024, The Washington Post reported that two major internet service providers in the United States had been compromised by China.^[1] AT&T, Verizon, Lumen Technologies, and T-Mobile were reported to have been affected by the Salt Typhoon advanced persistent threat linked to the China's Ministry of State Security.^{[2] [3] [4]}

Impact

Presidential election

In October, Donald Trump's campaign was notified that phones used by Trump and JD Vance may have been affected by the hack as well as the staff of the Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign.^[5]

Response

In October 2024, The Washington Post reported that the U.S. federal government formed a multi-agency team to address the hack.^[6]

See also

• Cyberwarfare by China

Notes and References

1. News: Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy . August 27, 2024 . Menn . Joseph . . August 27, 2024.
2. News: Krouse . Sarah . Volz . Dustin . Viswanatha . Aruna . McMillan . Robert . October 5, 2024 . U.S. Wiretap Systems Targeted in China-Linked Hack . subscription . October 5, 2024 . . October 5, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20241005025020/https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/u-s-wiretap-systems-targeted-in-china-linked-hack-327fc63b . live .
3. News: Volz . Dustin . Viswanatha . Aruna . FitzGerald . Drew . Krouse . Sarah . November 5, 2024 . China Hack Enabled Vast Spying on U.S. Officials, Likely Ensnaring Thousands of Contacts . subscription . November 6, 2024 . The Wall Street Journal.
4. News: Krouse . Sarah . Volz . Dustin . November 15, 2024 . T-Mobile Hacked in Massive Chinese Breach of Telecom Networks . subscription . November 15, 2024 . The Wall Street Journal.
5. News: Barrett . Devlin . Swan . Jonathan . Haberman . Maggie . October 25, 2024 . Chinese Hackers Are Said to Have Targeted Phones Used by Trump and Vance . October 25, 2024 . The New York Times.
6. Web site: Nakashima . Ellen . Ellen Nakashima . October 11, 2024 . White House forms emergency team to deal with China espionage hack . October 12, 2024 . The Washington Post.