Salt Typhoon hackers targeted over 80 countries, FBI says

U.S. investigators have determined a major Chinese espionage group targeted some 80 nations in a sweeping hack of global telecom systems discovered last year, marking a confirmed expansion of the campaign that appears to have moved beyond standard communications networks.

At least 600 organizations were notified by the FBI that the hackers — known as Salt Typhoon — had interest in their systems, the agency’s cybersecurity division director Brett Leatherman said in media interviews Wednesday that dovetailed with a release of a robust technical advisory about the hacking activity. Nextgov/FCW previously reported that hundreds of entities — telecom providers and others — were notified of potential compromise.

Salt Typhoon breached major telecom carriers in a global, multi-year espionage operation that, in part, targeted the phone conversations of key American officials, including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Additional discoveries about its scope and scale have trickled out over the past year.

Read more at NextGov/FCW