The continuous cyber attacks by Chinese hackers on American telecommunications companies have been drawing attention from high-level officials in the United States. On Friday (November 22), senior White House officials met with executives from the telecommunications industry to share intelligence and discuss these significant acts of cyber espionage.
In a statement, the White House mentioned that on Friday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger hosted a meeting with executives from the telecommunications industry to share intelligence and discuss the “significant acts of cyber espionage” that China has been conducting against the industry.
The White House stated that this meeting provided an opportunity to listen to the opinions of top executives in the telecommunications industry to understand how the U.S. government can collaborate with the private sector and support them in enhancing their defenses against complex national cyber attacks.
“Today’s meeting reflects the ongoing efforts of the Biden-Harris administration to engage with executives from critical infrastructure sectors to improve our domestic cyber security and strengthen our national resilience.”
The White House did not disclose in the statement which telecommunications companies or top executives from the industry attended the meeting.
Earlier this month, U.S. authorities revealed that hackers associated with the Chinese government infiltrated an undisclosed number of telecommunications companies, intercepting surveillance data used by U.S. law enforcement agencies.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) stated in a joint statement on November 13 that the hackers had compromised the networks of several American telecommunications companies, stealing customer call records and intercepting personal communications. Their targets were a limited number of individuals involved in government or political activities. The hackers also replicated some information provided by U.S. law enforcement when seeking court orders.
Mark Warner, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The Washington Post that Chinese government espionage activities have deeply infiltrated over a dozen American telecommunications companies, making it the “most serious telecommunications hacking attack in U.S. history.”
“(Communist) China is continuously trying to penetrate telecommunications systems worldwide to steal vast amounts of data,” he said.
On November 16, while meeting with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping in Lima, Peru, President Biden also raised the issue of Beijing’s cyber attacks. Biden expressed deep concerns regarding China’s ongoing cyber attacks which target civilian critical infrastructure, posing threats to the safety and security of Americans.