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The White House announced that a ninth U.S. telecommunications company has been hacked as part of a Chinese espionage campaign, in which Chinese officials gained access to the private texts and phone conversations of Americans.
The Biden administration had already reported that at least eight telecommunications companies and dozens of nations were impacted by the hacking operation, known as Salt Typhoon.
Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger said on Friday that the ninth victim was identified after the administration released guidance to companies on how to locate Chinese hackers in their networks.
The hackers compromised the networks of telecommunications companies to gather customer call records and access the private communications of a limited number of people, officials said.
The FBI has not publicly identified any of the victims, but believes senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures are among those whose communications were accessed.
Neuberger said that officials do not yet have a precise sense of how many Americans overall were targeted by Salt Typhoon, but that a “large number” of victims are in Washington, D.C., and Virginia.
The hackers wanted to identify who owned the devices and spy on their texts and phone calls if they were “government targets of interest,” Neuberger said. Most of the victims are “primarily involved in government or political activity,” the FBI said.
The hacking shows the need for required cybersecurity practices in the telecommunications industry, which the Federal Communications Commission is set to look at during a meeting next month.
Neuberger also said that the government is planning further action in response to the hacking campaign, but did not provide details. The Chinese government has denied responsibility for the hacking campaign.
