Salt Typhoon cyber espionage targets U.S. telecom networks

A large-scale cyber espionage campaign known as ‘Salt Typhoon’ targeted over 200 entities across 80 countries in late 2024. The attack primarily focused on the United States, infiltrating nine major telecommunications companies, including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

Investigators believe the campaign was conducted by the Chinese Ministry of State Security to collect data from U.S. politicians, specifically prioritizing the Washington D.C. region. The breach allowed attackers to access metadata from calls and messages belonging to millions of customers, potentially including data from high-profile figures such as Donald Trump and JD Vance.

T-Mobile officials reported that the intrusion was detected via an unusual router at a data center in California. The company worked to expel the attackers from their systems following the discovery.