T-Mobile hack linked to Chinese breaches of telecom networks | TechCrunch

U.S. phone giant T-Mobile was hacked as part of a broad cyberattack on U.S. and international phone and internet companies in recent months, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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 TechCrunch.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the breach at T-Mobile, citing sources familiar with the campaign targeting telecom giants.

A T-Mobile spokesperson, who did not provide their name, would not say if the company had the technical means, such as logs, to determine what, if any, customer data was accessed or exfiltrated. The spokesperson did not dispute the Journal’s reporting.

T-Mobile is the latest telecommunications company in recent weeks said to be hit by 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.

Updated with comment from T-Mobile.