Thought Leadership
The USA assumes that Chinese hackers have penetrated the systems of at least eight US telecommunications providers in order to spy on high-ranking politicians.
“At this time, we do not believe that the Chinese actors have been completely removed from these networks,” Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger told US media on Wednesday (local time).
According to the report, there is still a risk of persistent interference with communications. However, the US security authorities do not believe that the hackers have accessed classified information, Neuberger told CNN.
This is the highest number of companies affected to date that the US government has publicly announced about the extent of the hacking campaign.
Attack on telephone data during the election campaign
On Wednesday, intelligence officials briefed senators in detail about the hacking attack, according to CNN.
Back in October, it became known that suspected Chinese hackers had also targeted the phone data of US President-elect Donald Trump – then still a presidential candidate – and his running mate J.D. Vance. The environment of the campaign team of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and other high-ranking members of Joe Biden’s administration are also said to have been targeted by the criminals at the time.
China’s government denies involvement in the hacker attacks. Beijing has not yet responded to Neuberger’s statements either.
dpa
