US government agency warns workers of possible Chinese cellphone hacks

3 weeks ago

View of nan office building of nan Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) successful Washington DC

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

US national agency issues informing against cellphone usage for activity calls
Warning comes successful nan aftermath of nan breach of respective US telecoms providers
Attack has been attributed to Salt Typhoon, who besides breached a number of ISPs

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has issued a informing to its workers that individual mobile devices should not beryllium utilized for delicate activity calls owed to nan caller Chinese probing of US telecommunications networks.

The email sent by nan CFPB acknowledges that “While location is nary grounds that CFPB has been targeted by this unauthorized access, I inquire for your compliance pinch these directives truthful we trim nan consequence that we will beryllium compromised.”

The informing besides extends to contractors moving for nan CFB, and highlights nan standard of nan onslaught against US telecoms by nan China-related group tracked arsenic Salt Typhoon.

Telecoms onslaught worries national agencies

There is nary denotation connected precisely what information whitethorn person been exfiltrated from nan telecoms providers, but first reports propose that telephone logs, unencrypted texts and immoderate telephone audio was exfiltrated by nan attackers, including audio from a number of high-profile individuals related to nan Harris and Trump campaigns alongside perchance hundreds of thousands of US citizens.

US officials are besides cutting down connected their telephone usage successful consequence to nan hack, pinch a erstwhile US charismatic who said to nan Wall Street Journal (WSJ) stating, “There is simply a wide reticence to usage their cellphones.”

Salt Typhoon besides managed to breach respective net work providers (ISP) successful early October, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen, pinch nan attackers besides gaining entree to a lawful wiretap utilized for surveillance by US authorities.

As nan WSJ notes, a national agency issuing a circumstantial informing against nan usage of individual mobile phones indicates nan extent and breadth of nan attacks.

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“Do NOT behaviour CFPB activity utilizing mobile sound calls aliases matter messages,” nan CFPB email recommended. The email besides stated that unit should only usage authorized online collaboration platforms specified arsenic Cisco WebEx and Microsoft Teams to make calls and nonstop messages that incorporate non-public data.

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Benedict has been penning astir information issues for complete 7 years, first focusing connected geopolitics and world relations while astatine nan University of Buckingham. During this clip he studied BA Politics pinch Journalism, for which he received a second-class honours (upper division), then continuing his studies astatine a postgraduate level, achieving a favoritism successful MA Security, Intelligence and Diplomacy. Upon joining TechRadar Pro arsenic a Staff Writer, Benedict transitioned his attraction towards cybersecurity, exploring state-sponsored threat actors, malware, societal engineering, and nationalist security. Benedict is besides an master connected B2B information products, including firewalls, antivirus, endpoint security, and password management.

Source Technology