The White House said Friday that a ninth U.S. cellphone company was hacked as part of a Chinese spying campaign that gave national officials access to private emails and phone conversations of Americans.
The Biden administration said earlier this month that at least eight mobile phone companies and several countries were affected by China's hacking operation known as Salt Hurricane.
On Friday, deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger told reporters that the ninth victim had been identified after the administration released guidance to companies on how to target Chinese cybercriminals. them.
Agents compromised telecommunications companies' networks to collect customer phone records and access the private communications of a limited number of people, officials said.
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Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology, speaks during a press briefing at the White House, March 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP)
FBI team has not identified any victims, but officials believe that high-ranking US government officials and prominent political figures are among the victims whose communications have been accessed.
Neuberger said officials still don't have a good idea of how many Americans overall have been victims of Hurricane Salt, in part because criminals have been cautious about their methods, but he said “the number the majority” of victims was in Washington, DC. and Virginia.
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Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology Anne Neuberger speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House on March 17, 2021, in Washington. (Getty Images)
Officials say they believe criminals want to know who owns the devices and spy on their texts and phone calls if they are “government targets of interest,” Neuberger said.
Most of the victims “were heavily involved in government or political activities,” the FBI said.
Neuberger says cheating shows a need to die cybersecurity practices in the telecommunications industry, which the Federal Communications Commission intends to look into during a meeting next month.
The US and Chinese flags are placed before a meeting between US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, China, Saturday, July 8, 2023. (Mark Schifelbein/Pool via REUTERS)
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He also said, without giving details, that the government plans to take action in the coming weeks to respond to the theft campaign, although he did not say what.
“We know that voluntary cybersecurity practices are not enough to protect against China, Russia and Iran hacking our critical infrastructure,” he said.
The The Chinese government denied responsibility for the hacking campaign.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.