T-Mobile says it was hacked, linked to Chinese breaches of telecom networks

U.S. phone giant T-Mobile said it was hacked as part of a broad “industry-wide attack” on U.S. and international phone and internet companies in recent months.

T-Mobile said it was “closely monitoring this industry-wide attack, and at this time, T-Mobile systems and data have not been impacted in any significant way, and we have no evidence of impacts to customer information,” according to a statement shared with the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the breach at T-Mobile, citing sources familiar with the campaign targeting telecom giants.

A T-Mobile spokesperson did not immediately comment when contacted by TechCrunch on Saturday. 

T-Mobile is the latest telecommunications company in recent weeks to confirm an intrusion, linked to a series of cyberattacks targeting phone and internet companies, including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen (formerly CenturyLink). The hacks, conducted by a group of hackers working for the Chinese government dubbed Salt Typhoon, targeted the wiretap systems that U.S. phone and internet companies are required under a 30-year-old federal law to allow government access to customer data. 

The FBI and U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA went public this week to warn the wider industry of linked cyberattacks, accusing China of conducting a “broad and significant cyber espionage campaign” aimed at targeting the call records and text messages of high-ranking American officials, including presidential candidates.

This is the ninth known cyberattack to target T-Mobile in recent years, according to an ongoing count by TechCrunch. The most recent breach at T-Mobile was in 2023, leading to the theft of personal information from 37 million T-Mobile customers.

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