T-Mobile said “bad actors” attempted to breach its systems in recent weeks but were unable to access any private customer data
News of “Salt Typhoon,” a cyberespionage operation with ties to China that targeted U.S. phone companies, prompted the comment.
In a blog post on the company website on Wednesday, T-Mobile’s Chief Security Officer Jeff Simon said that the company had found attacks coming from a “wireline provider’s network that was connected to ours.” Simon did not name the business.
He claimed that T-Mobile’s security protected customer information, prevented service interruptions, and halted the attack.
Simon also said the hackers’ identities were unknown, but the company informed the U.S. government so they could investigate. “Bad actors had no access to sensitive customer data (including calls, voicemails, or texts),” Simon said.
T-Mobile said Wednesday that the hackers who attacked had “traits” like Salt Typhoon, but “we don’t know it’s them.”
Simon reported that T-Mobile also severed the connection to the provider’s network due to suspicions of hacking, without naming the provider.
Simon said that last week he spoke for T-Mobile at a meeting at the White House to talk about “large-scale, sophisticated national threats.”
In a joint statement this month, the FBI and the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency said they were looking into a “broad and significant cyber espionage campaign” by hackers with ties to China.
News accounts say that the Chinese operation got into AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen.
Police obtained legally required information and pilfered call logs from customers. They also hacked into the private conversations of a “limited number” of people in government or politics, the statement said.
News stories say that the operation got into the phones of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris campaign staff before the election on November 5.
On November 15, the Wall Street Journal reported that T-Mobile had also experienced a hack.
