Chinese Hackers Breach US Wiretap Systems – Report

A cyberattack allegedly linked to the Chinese government has struck at the heart of the US federal government’s wiretapping system.

This is according to a report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which reported that Chinese hackers penetrated the networks of a number of broadband providers, including AT&T and Verizon, “potentially accessing information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests.”

There seems to be no let up in the cyberwar being waged between nation-states and their proxy hackers. Last month the FBI defeated an attempt by state-sponsored hackers linked to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), who had tried to fight back against the US takedown of their 260,000-device botnet.

Wiretapping breach?

And last week the US and Microsoft disrupted a spear-phishing campaign being carried out by a unit of (or their criminal proxies) the Russian Federal Security Service (the FSB).

But now according to the WSJ (citing people familiar with the matter), China-linked hackers may have held access to American network infrastructure used to co-operate with lawful requests for communications data.

It also reported that the hackers had also accessed other tranches of internet traffic.

This is potentially a notable national security breach, after Verizon Communications, AT&T and Lumen Technologies were reportedly among the telecoms companies whose networks were breached by the recently discovered intrusion.

The WSJ said the attack was carried out by a Chinese hacking group with the aim of collecting intelligence.

American investigators have dubbed it “Salt Typhoon.”

Chinese response

Reuters reported that China’s foreign ministry responded that it was not aware of the attack described in the report but said the United States had “concocted a false narrative” to “frame” China in the past.

“At a time when cybersecurity has become a common challenge for all countries around the world, this erroneous approach will only hinder the efforts of the international community to jointly address the challenge through dialogue and cooperation,” the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.

It should be remembered that Beijing routinely denies claims by the US and other Western governments that it uses proxy hackers to break into foreign computer systems.