Joint advisory warns of Chinese telecom hacking campaign

According to recent reports, the US telecommunications infrastructure has been the target of a hacking campaign from China for months. The FBI issued a warning about the ongoing alleged attack some weeks ago. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States have now issued a joint advisory regarding the cyber espionage campaign.

Joint advisory addresses ongoing cyber espionage campaign from China to telecoms

Three additional countries have joined the US in their claims about Chinese attempts to breach the country’s most important mobile carriers. “Identified exploitations or compromises associated with these threat actors’ activity align with existing weaknesses associated with victim infrastructure; no novel activity has been observed,” the government agencies involved stated.

The joint advisory directly links the attack to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Authorities identify the attacking group as Salt Typhoon and speculate that the Chinese government may be funding it. This same group has been responsible for incidents tracked under multiple names in the past years. The list includes Earth Estries, FamousSparrow, GhostEmperor, and UNC2286. Salt Typhoon has reportedly been carrying out such campaigns since at least 2020.

The FBI says there could still be malicious actors infiltrating the US telecommunications infrastructure. Recently, Jeff Greene, a US security official, advised Americans to use encrypted telecommunications whenever possible as a security measure against the cyber espionage campaign. This represented a change of direction regarding the perception of encryption in the US government.

“Patching vulnerable devices and services, as well as generally securing environments, will reduce opportunities for intrusion and mitigate the actors’ activity,” the joint advisory added. Cybersecurity agencies also published a guide of measures to take to keep business environments safe in the face of the ongoing situation. The list includes the following tips:

Tensions between the United States and China continue to escalate

The alleged cyber espionage campaign against US telecommunications only intensifies the already tense situation between the governments of China and the United States. A few weeks after the first reports, the US issued new chip export restrictions for China. Earlier, Washington caught Huawei obtaining AI hardware made with US technology, bypassing the current trade restrictions. Beijing has tried to distance itself from the allegations, stating that they have nothing to do with the attacks.

China responded to the latest US export bans with its own sanctions. The Chinese restrictions affect the export of minerals such as gallium, germanium, and antimony to the United States. These are key materials in the production of semiconductors. Plus, the current message in the Chinese tech industry is that American chips are “no longer safe.” Meanwhile, Chinese companies are accelerating the process of relocating their supply chain.