U.S. Senators Briefed on China's Hacking Efforts

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. government agencies will hold a classified briefing for all senators on Wednesday regarding China's alleged efforts, referred to as Salt Typhoon, to infiltrate American telecommunications companies to steal data about U.S. calls. This information is sourced from officials and a notice seen by Reuters.

The briefing will include participants from the FBI, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, the National Security Council, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.

Additionally, a U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee plans a hearing on the Salt Typhoon hacking on December 11, according to officials.

This briefing responds to rising concerns about the scale of reported Chinese hacking into U.S. telecommunications networks and the timeline for assurances from companies and the government to the American public regarding these matters.

The White House has not commented on this situation. U.S. officials have previously indicated that hackers targeted Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, among others, extracting both telephone audio intercepts and a significant amount of call record data.

Chinese officials have referred to these allegations as disinformation, asserting that Beijing opposes and combats cyber attacks and theft in all forms.

CISA officials said they are unable to provide a timeline for completely removing hackers from America's telecom networks. “It would be impossible for us to predict when we’ll have full eviction,” CISA official Jeff Greene stated.