US agencies to brief senators on Chinese Salt Typhoon telecom hacking

By David Shepardson

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government agencies will hold a classified briefing for all senators on Wednesday on China’s alleged efforts known as Salt Typhoon to burrow deep into American telecommunications companies and steal data about U.S. calls, according to officials and a notice seen by Reuters.

 

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 are set to take part in the 3 p.m. ET briefing, the officials said. 

 

Separately, a U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee is planning to hold a hearing on the Salt Typhoon hacking on Dec. 11, officials said.

 

The briefing comes amid growing concern about the size and scope of the reported Chinese hacking into U.S. telecommunications networks and questions about when companies and the government can assure Americans over the matter.

 

The White House did not immediately comment. U.S. officials have previously alleged that the hackers targeted Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and others and stole telephone audio intercepts along with a large tranche of call record data.

 

Chinese officials have previously described the allegations as disinformation and said that Beijing "firmly opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all forms."

 

CISA told reporters on Tuesday that it could not offer a timetable for ridding America’s telecom networks of all hackers.

 

"It would be impossible for us to predict when we’ll have full eviction," CISA official Jeff Greene said. 

 

 (Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jason Neely)