Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota warned Friday that Chinese state-sponsored hackers, known as Salt Typhoon, have infiltrated all major U.S. telecommunications providers, enabling them to spy on millions of Americans. The Daily Caller News Foundation reported that Rounds spoke at Halifax The Forum, during which he revealed that hackers can access texts and phone conversations across networks like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
“Any one of us today is subject to review by the Chinese Communist government,” Rounds said. “They can read your texts and hear your conversations—it’s just a matter of who they choose to target.”
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the breach “the worst telecom hack in our nation’s history.” Hackers reportedly accessed law enforcement wiretap request logs, revealing investigative targets, though the wiretap systems themselves were not compromised.
The intrusion, ongoing for over a year, exploited outdated infrastructure and network trust, allowing real-time eavesdropping and data exfiltration. While fewer than 150 individuals were directly targeted, millions of associated contacts were compromised. High-profile targets include former President Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance, and White House officials, according to The Washington Post.
Efforts to expel the hackers remain challenging. Removing them requires replacing thousands of routers and switches across affected networks. Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger urged stricter cybersecurity measures, warning, “We must lock our digital doors.”
