Chinese hackers gained access to networks of US providers of broadband services and extracted information from the systems the federal government uses for court-authorized wiretapping of mobile devices, Reuters reported, citing information from the Wall Street Journal, cited by BTA.
"Verizon Communications" (Verizon Communications), AT&T and "Lumen Technologies" (Lumen Technologies) are among the telecommunications companies whose networks were compromised in the recently discovered breach, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The publication claims that the hackers may have had access for months to the network infrastructure used by the companies to cooperate with court-authorized requests by US authorities for communications data. According to the "Wall Street Journal" hackers also had access to other structures of Internet traffic.
China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. In the past, Beijing has denied claims by the US government and other countries that it uses hackers to penetrate foreign computer systems.
The three US telecommunications companies also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to "Wall Street Journal" the attack was carried out by a Chinese hacking group to gather intelligence. American investigators called it the "Salty Typhoon" (Salt Typhoon).
Earlier this year, US law enforcement agencies busted a major Chinese hacking group called "Lin Typhoon" (Flax Typhoon), months after they accused Beijing of large-scale cyber espionage in a campaign dubbed "Volt Typhoon" (Volt Typhoon).