Chinese Hackers Break Into US Broadband Service Provider Network, Access To Government Supervision Systems"

An illustration of hackers utilizing the vulnerability of a system. (photo; dock. pexels)

JAKARTA - Hackers from China have reportedly successfully accessed a broadband service provider network in the United States and obtained information from a system used by the federal government for wiretapping permitted by the courts. This was reported by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, October 5.

Verizon Communications, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies are among the telecommunications companies whose networks were compromised in this incident, according to reports citing sources familiar with the matter.

Lumen Technologies declined to comment on the matter, while Verizon and AT&T have not yet responded to requests for comment. The report states that the attack was carried out by Chinese hacker groups with the aim of gathering intelligence. US investigators have dubbed this attack as "Salt Typhoon."

The hacker is believed to have had months of access to the network infrastructure used by the companies to cooperate in requests for communications data authorized by US courts.

In addition, hackers also managed to access other internet data streams. China's Foreign Ministry responded on Sunday 6 October that it was not aware of the attack in question in the report, but accused the United States of creating false narratives to blame China.

"At a time when cybersecurity is a common challenge for all countries in the world, this erroneous approach will only hinder international community efforts to jointly address these challenges through dialogue and cooperation," China's Foreign Ministry said.

Previously, China had also denied accusations by the US government and other countries that it was using hackers to break into foreign computer systems.

Earlier this year, US law enforcement succeeded in thwarting a large Chinese hacker group dubbed "Flax Typhoon," months after facing Beijing over cyber espionage in a campaign called "Volt Typhoon."

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also added that Beijing's cybersecurity agency has discovered and published evidence showing that Volt Typhoon is actually an action regulated by the international ransomware organization."