According to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal on Friday, T-Mobile’s network was attacked in a cyber espionage operation carried out by the Chinese Communist Party. Hackers successfully breached multiple American and international telecommunications companies.
In this months-long operation involving hackers affiliated with Chinese intelligence agencies, they breached T-Mobile’s defenses with the aim of monitoring mobile communications of high-value intelligence targets, although the report did not disclose the specific timing of the attack.
It is currently unclear whether call and communication records of T-Mobile customers were stolen, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
A company spokesperson told Reuters in an email, “T-Mobile is closely monitoring this industry-wide attack.”
“At present, T-Mobile’s systems and data have not been significantly affected, and we have not found any evidence of customer information being compromised.”
The targeting of T-Mobile signifies an expansion of the known list of victims of Chinese hacker cyber espionage operations. Some US officials believe the scope and severity of the operation by a group known as “Salt Typhoon” is historic and catastrophic.
On Wednesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US cybersecurity agency CISA stated that hackers affiliated with China intercepted surveillance data originally intended for US law enforcement agencies after infiltrating several telecommunications companies.
As early as October, The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese hackers had accessed the networks of American broadband providers, including Verizon Communications, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies, and obtained information from systems used by the federal government for court-authorized wiretapping.
Beijing has previously denied allegations from the US government and others about its use of hackers to infiltrate foreign computer systems.