Emerging Details of Chinese Hack Leave U.S. Officials Increasingly Concerned

Leaders of the top telecommunications companies were summoned to the White House to discuss a security problem that has been roiling the government: how to expel Chinese hackers from the deepest corners of the nation’s communications networks. The meeting in the Situation Room came after weeks in which officials grew increasingly alarmed by what they had uncovered about the hack. They now believe the hackers from a group called “Salt Typhoon,” closely linked to China’s Ministry of State Security, were lurking undetected inside the networks of the biggest American telecommunications firms for more than a year. They have learned that the Chinese hackers got a nearly complete list of phone numbers the Justice Department monitors in its “lawful intercept” system, which places wiretaps on people suspected of committing crimes or spying, usually after a warrant is issued.