washington
CNN
—
U.S. officials believe Chinese hackers have breached at least eight U.S. telecommunications providers in an attempt to spy on top U.S. political figures as part of a hacking campaign affecting dozens of countries around the world. White House officials announced Wednesday.
“At this time, we do not believe that any Chinese attackers have been completely removed from these networks…Therefore, there is a risk that communications compromises will continue,” Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger told reporters. He told the group.
This is the Biden administration’s largest public tally yet of the scope of the hacking campaign that has undermined the U.S. national security establishment and is poised to challenge the incoming Trump administration. Officials do not believe the hackers accessed any sensitive information, Neuberger said.
Neuberger’s remarks came Wednesday as senior U.S. intelligence officials briefed senators on China’s hacking activities.
CNN previously reported that the suspected Chinese hackers were targeting the telephone communications of key US political figures, including President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, as well as senior Biden administration officials.
China denies involvement.
U.S. authorities are still trying to help major telecom providers remove Chinese government-backed hackers from their networks, but there is no timeline yet for when that will be completed, officials said Tuesday. revealed.
FBI and CISA officials say telecom companies that have worked with federal authorities the longest are the ones that have made the most progress in eliminating hackers. Verizon and AT&T are among the major carriers targeted by hackers, CNN previously reported.
The FBI began investigating China’s hacking efforts in late spring and early summer of this year, a senior FBI official said in the agency’s most detailed update yet on the espionage effort.
The hackers stole large amounts of phone records showing where, when and with whom people communicated, but not the content of the calls or text messages, a senior FBI official said. The hackers were able to intercept phone calls and text data for a “limited number” of U.S. government and political officials, the official added.
The hackers also “copied certain information that was subject to court-ordered U.S. law enforcement requests,” a senior FBI official said. But portals within telecommunications providers that allow law enforcement to conduct court-ordered wiretaps were not the hackers’ primary focus, officials said.
