Chinese Hackers Hit Global Telecom Carriers, Security Firm Says
Hackers thought to be affiliated with China's government have broken into the systems of more than a dozen global telecommunications carriers, taking with them "large amounts" of consumer and business data, according to Boston-based cybersecurity firm Cybereason.
Cybereason, which was first to identify the attacks, said that the hacks were long-running and appeared to be an intelligence operation because it targeted specific individuals. The tracked activity in the report occurred in 2018 and perhaps 2017.
“No one siphons out hundreds of gigabytes of data about a very specific amount of individuals unless it’s for intelligence [purposes],” said Amit Serper, principal security researcher at Cybereason, which published its research on Tuesday. “The attackers knew exactly what they were after.” In one instance, the hackers targeted about 20 customers of one cellular provider, according to Cybereason.
