US officials are still trying to help major telecom providers evict Chinese government-backed hackers from their networks and don’t have a timeline for when that will be done, officials said Tuesday.
“We’re still figuring out just how deeply and where they’ve penetrated, so until we have a complete picture, it’s hard to know the exact parameters of how to kick them off,” Jeff Greene, a senior official with the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), told reporters.
“Most [telecom] providers are still working to illuminate the full extent of the PRC activity,” a senior FBI official added, using an acronym for the Chinese government.
The alleged Chinese hackers have gone after the phone communications of senior US political figures such as President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, CNN has previously reported. The hacking effort has roiled Washington and is already shaping up to be a top national security challenge facing the incoming Trump administration.
The telecom companies that have worked the longest with federal officials are the furthest along in evicting the hackers, the FBI and CISA officials said. Verizon and AT&T are among the major telecom carriers targeted by the hackers, CNN previously reported.
The FBI began investigating the Chinese hacking activity in late spring or early summer this year, the senior FBI official said in the most detailed update yet from the bureau on the espionage campaign.
The hackers stole “a large amount” of bulk phone records that indicate where, when and who people were communicating with, but not the content of the calls or texts, the senior FBI official said. For a “limited number” of people in the US government or involved in politics, the hackers were able to intercept call and text data, the official added.
The hackers also “copied certain information that was subject to US law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders,” the senior FBI official said. But the portal within telecom providers that allows law enforcement agencies to conduct court-ordered wiretaps was not the primary focus of the hackers, the official said.
“The PRC started this campaign with much broader aims,” the official continued. “National security and law enforcement intercepts were only one of several targets for these actors’ collection once they got into the networks.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
