A bipartisan coalition of U.S. lawmakers has demanded responses from AT&T, Verizon Communications, and Lumen Technologies regarding a recent report alleging that Chinese hackers infiltrated the networks of American broadband providers. The inquiry comes in the wake of a Wall Street Journal article stating that these hackers accessed sensitive information from systems utilized by the federal government for court-authorized wiretapping.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R) and the committee’s leading Democrat, Representative Frank Pallone, along with Representatives Bob Latta and Doris Matsui, have formally requested a briefing and detailed answers from the telecom companies by next Friday. “There is a growing concern regarding the cybersecurity vulnerabilities embedded in U.S. telecommunications networks,” the lawmakers stated, emphasizing the urgency of understanding what information was compromised and when the companies first became aware of the breach.
While AT&T and Lumen declined to comment, Verizon has yet to respond to requests for information. The timeline of the hack remains unclear, but sources indicate that hackers may have maintained access for months to network infrastructure that the companies use to comply with U.S. requests for communication data. Additionally, the hackers reportedly intercepted other segments of internet traffic.
In a statement on Sunday, China’s foreign ministry expressed ignorance about the alleged attack, claiming that the United States has “concocted a false narrative” to “frame” China in similar situations in the past.
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