A senior U.S. official revealed Wednesday that a Chinese hacking group known as "Salt Typhoon" has stolen metadata belonging to a significant number of Americans during a cyberespionage campaign.
In a call with reporters, the official declined to provide specific numbers but said that China's access to America's telecommunications networks was potentially broad and that there was a risk of "ongoing compromise."
The official said the White House had made tackling the Salt Typhoon hackers a priority for the federal government and that President Joe Biden had been briefed several times on the intrusions.
U.S. Representative Jake Auchincloss said last month "Salt Typhoon is the worst telecom hack in American history, and demands both a proportionate response to the Chinese Communist Party and increased accountability for U.S. corporations to prevent these intrusions."
Incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr said on Wednesday "The Salt Typhoon intrusion is a serious and unacceptable risk to our national security." Carr said he will work "with national security agencies through the transition and next year in an effort to root out the threat and secure our networks."
The White House declined to comment. U.S. officials have previously alleged the hackers targeted Verizon, AT&T , T-Mobile, Lumen and others and stole telephone audio intercepts along with a large tranche of call record data.
T-Mobile said it does not believe hackers got access to its customer information. Verizon and AT&T did not immediately comment Wednesday. Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, AT&T CEO John Stankey and T-Mobile took part in a Nov. 22 White House meeting on the issue.
Chinese officials have previously described the allegations as disinformation and said Beijing "firmly opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all forms."
CISA told reporters on Tuesday that it could not offer a timetable for ridding America's telecom networks of all hackers.
"It would be impossible for us to predict when we'll have full eviction," CISA official Jeff Greene said.
