National Security Agency investigates Chinese hack of 3 telecommunications companies

WASHINGTON (TND) — The National Security Agency is investigating a hack that involves three major telecommunications firms; AT&T, Verizon and Lumen Technologies.

David Hyde, a professor of computer science at Vanderbilt University said based on the information being shared right now, some of the nation’s largest telecommunications providers appeared to have suffered a breach.

Due to these malicious actors which are currently believed to be associated with Chinese state-sponsored hacking groups,” Hyde said.

According to a source with knowledge of the matter, the hackers may have been trying to access systems the federal government uses for court-approved electronic surveillance.

“It’s particularly bad that the traffic these attackers would have been able to see would have some strong correlation in principle with activities of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities,” said Hyde.

Milos Manic, director of the cybersecurity program at Virginia Commonwealth University said that telecommunications companies are usually prime targets for hackers because of the information being stored.

Companies like that are target reaching because they have massive amounts of very sensitive data,” Manic said.

As for what was potentially stolen, Manic said he’d rather not speculate as right now, not much is being shared.

“It’s not in (the) interest of national security to publicize the details,” said Manic.

A spokesperson from China’s embassy in Washington responded to the allegations, saying in a statement that the U.S. intelligence community and cybersecurity companies are spreading disinformation.