House committee on CCP seeks China-hacked companies briefing on breach

U.S. lawmakers are demanding answers after hackers linked to the Chinese Communist Party breached multiple U.S. telecommunications systems, jeopardizing federal counterintelligence security.

Systems maintained by Verizon Communications, Lumen Technologies, and AT&T were compromised, possibly for months, by a hacking group believed to be organized by the Chinese Ministry of State Security.

The group, known as Salt Typhoon, has been blamed for the tapping of networks used by the federal government in court-approved wiretaps, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The name "Salt Typhoon" was previously given to the hackers by Microsoft security professionals.

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), the chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, issued a letter to the three affected companies on Friday addressing the crisis and demanding cooperation to address security problems.

"The implications of any breach of this nature would be difficult to overstate," Moolenaar wrote. "Accordingly, it comes as no surprise that the group publicly reported to likely be behind this attack is Salt Typhoon, a hacking unit closely affiliated with the PRC’s Ministry of State Security."

Moolenaar connected the threat posed by Salt Typhoon's activity to wider Chinese-funded cyberattacks in the United States from similar hacking collectives.

"Earlier this year, the Select Committee held a hearing focused on another PRC hacking
group, known as Volt Typhoon, and its successful efforts to compromise U.S. critical infrastructure," reads the letter co-signed by ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).

"Taken together with these news reports regarding Salt Typhoon’s apparent compromise of our nation’s wiretap system, it is clear that we face a cyber-adversary the likes of which we have never confronted before, and we must urgently enhance our nation’s approach to cybersecurity," it continues.

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The committee is requesting a closed-door briefing with executives of Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies to understand how the companies first became aware of the Salt Typhoon hack and the measures taken by the telecommunications companies to protect networks used by the federal government.

The letter also offers to discuss "what measures Congress and the federal government can undertake to help your companies implement additional measures to protect against PRC state-sponsored hacking efforts."