T-Mobile has become a huge victim of damaging Chinese cyber-espionage operation that has made its way into several US and international telecommunications companies.
On Friday, November 15, The Wall Street Journal reported that a Chinese cyberattack has disrupted the operations of multiple international telecom companies that included T-Mobile’s network as well.
The report revealed that hackers who are connected to a Chinese intelligence agency made a successful attempt to infringe the American wireless network company as a part of a monthslong campaign, aimed to spy on the high-stakes intelligence targets’ cellphone communications.
A spokesperson of T-Mobile, while confirming the news, stated, "T-Mobile is closely monitoring this industry-wide attack. 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.”
Moreover, there is no update yet on what information the cyber-attackers obtained about the company customers’ calls and communications records.
As per federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the hackers have successfully accessed the call records of specific customers, private communications of targeted individuals, and information about law enforcement surveillance requests.
Furthermore, it was also reported that the breach apparently was aimed to target the sensitive communications of the high-ranking US national security and policy officials, posing significant threats to national security.
