Major US telecom T-Mobile among victims of China-linked breach

Wireless carrier T-Mobile, along with AT&T, Verizon, Lumen Technologies, and other companies, was breached during a major Chinese spying operation, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported.

Update: T-Mobile released an official statement on cyberattacks targeting US wireless companies, stating that its defenses prevented attackers from advancing and that no sensitive customer information was accessed.

T-Mobile’s network was among the wiretapped systems during a Chinese cyber-espionage operation, according to WSJ sources.

The telecom giant told the WSJ it “is closely monitoring this industry-wide attack, and at this time, T-Mobile systems and data have not been impacted in any significant way, and we have no evidence of impacts to customer information.”

“We will continue to monitor this closely, working with industry peers and the relevant authorities.”

According to the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), an investigation into hackers linked to a Chinese intelligence agency has revealed a “broad and significant cyber espionage campaign.”

They believe that China-affiliated threat actors have hacked networks at multiple telecommunications companies.

The cyberattack enabled the theft of customer call records data, the compromise of private communications of a limited number of individuals primarily involved in government or political activity, and the copying of certain information subject to US law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders.

“We expect our understanding of these compromises to grow as the investigation continues,” the statement reads.

The campaign was carried out by the highly sophisticated threat actor Salt Typhoon, also known as GhostEmperor and FamousSparrow.

Updated on May 21st [08:30 a.m. GMT] with a statement from T-Mobile.