Chinese hackers ran amok in US telecom network for 18 months got info on over 1 million people: report

China-linked hackers reportedly managed to sneak into a US telecommunications surveillance system network for 18 months undetected and amass data on over 1 million people, with the full extent of their shenanigans still unknown.Beginning around mid-2023, nefarious cyberintruders who are part of a hacking group known as Salt Typhoon — which has ties to Chinese intelligence — penetrated Verizon, AT&T and systems used for court-backed surveillance, the Wall Street Journal reported.The latter systems reportedly entailed individuals whom the US government suspected of being agents for China.

Without specifying which company, the report claimed that the hackers got into one US telecommunications network for 18 months and into another company’s network for six months.During that time, hackers targeted calls and phone lines tied to President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance, Vice President Kamala Harris as well as individuals in their orbit.

Of particular focus for the hackers were telecommunications coming out of Washington, DC and in all they were able to get their hands on a trove of IP addresses, phone numbers and more from over 1 million people, according to the report.“[This was] worst telecom hack in our nation’s history — by far,” an unnamed senator vented to The Washington Post last year about the hack.

Alarmingly, after the cybercriminals were identified, they modified their tactics, which made locating and thwarting them more complicated, per the Wall Street Journal.They reportedly still remained burrowed in some of the companies’ wiretap systems as recently as October, even after the public learned about the intrusion.During their time inside the networks, the intruders attempted to mimic systems engineers and then mask their activities in order to blend in.

But authorities were eventually able to observe the hackers pass pilfered data around the world before pulling it into China.“We saw a massive set of data acquire...