U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) last week requested a closed-door briefing from representatives of Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies, which reportedly were victims of a cyberattack linked to the Chinese government.
Rep. Moolenaar, in his role as chairman of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and Committee Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) say that “the implications of any breach of this nature would be difficult to overstate,” according to an Oct. 10 letter they sent to the CEOs of the three companies.
“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 [People’s Republic of China’s] Ministry of State Security,” the lawmakers wrote.
Citing news reports, the members wrote that the cyberattack allowed the hackers to potentially access information from systems used by the federal government for court-authorized network wiretapping requests.
Rep. Moolenaar and Rep. Krishnamoorthi requested that the CEOs address several items during a closed-door briefing, including when the companies first became aware of the cyberattack, and any specific measures they took or are taking to protect these systems.
They also pointed out that 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.
“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,” the lawmakers wrote.
“While we appreciate that there may be an ongoing federal investigation into this matter, and we appreciate your cooperation with any such inquiries, we cannot wait to fortify our defenses,” they added.