A senior White House official said Wednesday that at least eight US telecommunications companies and dozens of countries were affected Chinese hacking campaign.
Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger offered new details about the breadth of the attack widespread Chinese hacking campaign which he gave to the officials inside Beijing access to private messages and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans.
Neuberger revealed the extent of the hacking a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidelines intended to root out hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials warned that the number of affected telecommunications companies and countries could increase.
The US believes that hackers were able to gain access to the communications of senior US government officials and prominent political figures through hacking, Neuberger said.
“We do not believe that any classified communications have been compromised,” Neuberger added during a call with reporters.
She noted that only a small number of Americans’ phone calls and texts were compromised, as the hack appeared to target a relatively small group of individuals. Neuberger added that all the affected companies are responding, but none “have completely removed the Chinese actors from these networks.”
“Therefore, there is a risk of continued compromises in communications until US companies address the cybersecurity gaps that the Chinese will likely retain access to,” Neuberger said.
She said President Joe Biden had been informed of the findings and that the White House had “made it a priority for the federal government to do everything they can to get to the bottom of this.”
The Chinese embassy in Washington on Tuesday rejected accusations that it was responsible for the hack after US federal authorities issued new guidelines.
“The US should stop its own cyber attacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to slander and slander China,” said embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu.
The embassy did not immediately respond to messages on Wednesday.
White House officials believe the hacking was regionally targeted and focused on very senior government officials.
Federal authorities confirmed in October that the hackers were linked to China was shooting phones then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his opponent, Senator JD Vance, along with people associated with Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
The number of countries affected by the hack is currently believed to be “low, in the dozens,” according to a senior administration official.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said they believe the hacks began at least a year or two ago.
The proposals for telecommunication companies released Tuesday are mostly technical in nature, calling for encryption, centralization and consistent monitoring to prevent cyber intrusions.
If implemented, the security measures could disrupt the operation, which has been dubbed Salt Typhoon, and make it difficult for China or any other nation to carry out a similar attack in the future, experts say.
Neuberger pointed to the efforts made to strengthen cyber security in the railway, aviation, energy and other sectors after May 2021. ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline.
“So in order to prevent ongoing Salt typhoon-type intrusions by China, we believe we need to apply similar minimum cybersecurity practices,” Neuberger said.
A cyberattack by a group of criminal hackers on a critical US oil pipeline, which supplies about 45% of the fuel used along the Eastern Seashoreit caused ripple effects throughout the economy, highlighting cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the country’s aging energy infrastructure. Colonial has confirmed that it has paid $4.4 million to a group of hackers who broke into its computer systems while it was trying to turn the national gas pipeline back on.
