Chinese telecom hackers likely holding stolen data ‘in perpetuity’ for later attempts, FBI official says

“I think it’s important to say we do not know exactly what the [People’s Republic of China] intends to do with a lot of this information,” said FBI cyber official Michael Machtinger.

A Chinese state-backed hacking group that was discovered in telecom operators and other communications systems is likely holding onto pilfered data “in perpetuity” for future theft and cyber exploitation, a top FBI official said Thursday.

Salt Typhoon, as the group is widely known, accessed dozens of telecom providers around the world in a multi-year espionage campaign that was first publicly disclosed in 2024. In the U.S., the hackers targeted communications of top political officials by accessing the government’s “lawful intercept” systems that facilitate court-ordered wiretapping requests.

The breach has been widely deemed one of the worst telecom espionage intrusions in U.S. history. It remains unconfirmed whether the cyberspies have been fully purged from ...