David DiMolfetta,
Two U.S. security agencies listed mass media provider Comcast and data center giant Digital Realty among companies likely ensnared by a Chinese hacking group previously found inside major U.S. and global telecom operators, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The National Security Agency made the determination that Comcast had likely been impacted by the group, known as Salt Typhoon, according to two of the people. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency cataloged Digital Realty as being potentially compromised, the third person said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter’s sensitivity.
Salt Typhoon breached major telecom carriers in a global, multi-year espionage campaign uncovered last year. Over time, news trickled out about the scope and scale of the incident, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The hacking unit is part of a broader syndicate of state-backed groups tied to different military and intelligence arms of China’s central government. The “Typhoon” moniker comes from a Microsoft naming convention for Beijing-linked cyber actors.
Such intrusions, especially into a data center environment, could give the hackers a potentially far deeper foothold into infrastructure supporting the world’s information service providers than previously known. The agencies’ assessments have not been previously reported.
There’s uncertainty among officials about who was impacted by Salt Typhoon. Various agencies across the U.S. government are in possession of lists of confirmed or potential victims, but it’s not clear if the tallies are consistent with each other, adding to confusion about who may have been accessed, targeted or marked for investigation, one of the people said.
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