Salt Typhoon hacks into National Guard systems a ‘serious escalation’, experts warn

A prolific Chinese hacking unit’s breach into National Guard networks poses a serious threat to Defense Department systems and is a major escalation of the group’s initial breach into core telecom networks first uncovered last year, according to experts.

A Department of Homeland Security memo summarizing Pentagon findings said the group — known publicly as Salt Typhoon — “extensively compromised a U.S. state’s Army National Guard network” between March and December 2024. The state was not named. 

Salt Typhoon also “collected its network configuration and its data traffic with its counterparts’ networks in every other US state and at least four US territories,” says the memo, citing a DOD report. “This data also included these networks’ administrator credentials and network diagrams — which could be used to facilitate follow-on Salt Typhoon hacks of these units.”

The June 11 memo produced by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis was ...