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House panel warns telecom data center links exposed to Salt Typhoon
The report says routine third party pathways left China-linked state carriers embedded in US internet infrastructure beyond FCC actions that barred direct connections.
US telecommunications companies connected their systems to data centers and related infrastructure in ways that may have exposed them to cybersecurity vulnerabilities, according to a House Select Committee on China report released Tuesday.
The committee said these secondary connections created links between US telecom networks and infrastructure tied to three Chinese telecommunications firms that are prohibited from operating in the US, describing the pathways as allowing continued presence through regulatory gaps.
The report also connects the dots to Salt Typhoon, a Chinese hacking group that, US intelligence officials have accused, carried out a broad and significant cyberespionage campaign. The committee characterized Salt Typhoon as trying to “weaponize the fundamental architecture of carrier networks,” noting that the cyberattacks involved efforts to steal call records and compromise communications belonging to a limited number of people in government and politics.
In 2024, US officials accused Salt Typhoon of targeting multiple US telecom carriers, and the companies named included AT&T, Verizon, Lumen, and T-Mobile. The report adds that the FCC barred China Telecom, China Mobile International, and China Unicom from directly connecting to US networks, but the panel said regulators did not require the carriers to remove hardware from third party data centers or end internet management services there.