This week, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint statement (via TechSpot) confirming that Chinese hackers were behind several breaches of US telecommunications providers. However, they also compromised wiretap systems used by law enforcement for surveillance.
The agencies described the cyberattack campaign as “broad and significant” while tying the breaches to a group called “Salt Typhoon” that the agencies say is backed by the People’s Republic of China.
The group reportedly, infiltrated several telecommunications providers. The statement does not name any specific companies but the Wall Street Journal has reported that AT&T and Verizon were among the affected providers.
Apparently, the group had “carte blanche” access to network systems, however, US officials stated that compromised data was only taken from select individuals, mainly people involved with the government or political activities.
In the statement, the FBI and CISA stated they would assist any affected organizations or companies, “continue to render technical assistance, rapidly share information to assist other potential victims, and work to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector.”
Space implications: This particular hack targeted “telecommunications providers,” the exact methodology of the attack, attack vectors used, and network infrastructure compromised was not stated but with the key role that space assets play in modern telecommunications it does not take much of a cognitive leap to imagine that this hack could have endangered space assets. With many cell phones now able to communicate directly with satellites (e.g: Apple’s SOS mode), hacking groups such as Salt Typhoon could use a compromised cell phone to pivot and compromise a space asset. The widespread access that “Salt Typhoon” demonstrated with this hack could potentially be used to gain access to or compromise a large number of space assets.