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US phone giant T-Mobile said on Wednesday that hackers were “unable to access” its customers’ calls, text messages and voicemail messages during an ongoing industry-wide cyberattack targeting internet and phone companies.
Jeff Simon, T-Mobile’s chief security officer, said: In a statement The company detected in recent weeks “attempts to infiltrate our systems,” which Simon said originated from another carrier connected to T-Mobile’s network. That company has not been named.
“We quickly disconnected the provider’s network because we believe it was – and may still be – vulnerable,” Simon said.
The Wall Street Journal reported Last week The Chinese-backed hacking group known as Salt Typhoon hacked T-Mobile, along with several other telecom giants, including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen, as part of a wide-ranging espionage operation targeting the communications of US officials and senior Americans, including presidential candidates. .
T-Mobile said on Wednesday that it could not definitively identify the hackers, but added: “We do not see these or other attackers in our systems at this time.” The company did not explicitly rule out a previous breach of its systems, saying its cybersecurity defenses prevented attackers “from accessing sensitive customer information.”
When asked by TechCrunch, a T-Mobile spokesperson said that metadata about customers’ phone calls and text messages, such as information about the caller, sender, recipient, and dates and times of communications, are considered “sensitive” customer records and cannot be accessed.
“We have robust technical means, including logs, to be able to identify threats and activity on our systems. It is this type of telemetry that has enabled us to quickly identify suspicious activity and take action to protect our systems,” said T-Mobile spokeswoman Michelle Jacob. And our customers.
T-Mobile said it has invested in strengthening cybersecurity over the past years, largely due to several data breaches that compromised millions of T-Mobile customers’ personal information..
The US cybersecurity agency and the FBI said in a public alert last week that Chinese-backed hackers were targeting telecom companies as part of a “widespread and significant cyberespionage campaign” targeting wiretapping systems, which US phone and internet companies are required by law to install. .
Senior US officials have linked the Salt Typhoon campaign against telecom companies as part of a broader effort by China to lay the groundwork for disruptive cyberattacks in the event of a future conflict with the United States, such as an expected Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
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