AT&T Inc. acknowledged that it had been hit by the China-linked Salt Typhoon hacking operation but that its networks were now clear from the intrusion.
The hackers attempted to gain information about foreign intelligence, the carrier said Saturday in a statement. The Dallas-based telecom company is cooperating with authorities and notifying parties whose information may have been compromised.
“We detect no activity by nation-state actors in our networks at this time,” the company said. “Based on our current investigation of this attack, the People’s Republic of China targeted a small number of individuals of foreign intelligence interest. In the relatively few instances in which an individual’s information was impacted, we have complied with our notification obligations in cooperation with law enforcement.”
AT&T will “continue to work closely with government officials, other telecommunication companies, and third-party experts on the investigation of this nation-state action” and said it’s “monitoring and remediating” its networks to safeguard customer data.
Telecom carriers including AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc. were hit by the Salt Typhoon network intrusions, and that the hackers potentially accessed systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests, the Wall Street Journal reported in October.
Since then, information about what’s going on inside the carriers hasn’t been shared widely. T-Mobile USA Inc. disclosed that it caught suspicious behavior on network-level routers that appeared consistent with Salt Typhoon, but it booted the attackers before they accessed any customer data.
The White House confirmed Friday that nine telecom companies were breached in the intrusion, nicknamed Salt Typhoon by Microsoft Corp. threat researchers, but US officials didn’t name the affected companies.
US officials have said they still don’t know exactly how many Americans were targeted and that it’s impossible to predict how long it will take to eradicate the threat across the country.
China has repeatedly denied involvement. The Biden administration recently called telecom industry leaders to a closed-door session in which industry and government representatives discussed how to address the vast vulnerabilities. The attendees included AT&T Chief Executive Officer John Stankey.
