Host of House panels getting briefed on major Chinese hacker telecom breaches

Executive branch agencies were briefing a slate of House committees Thursday about a Chinese hack that infiltrated major telecommunications companies and reportedly targeted the phones of top members of the Donald Trump campaign — including the president-elect himself — and top U.S. officials, according to a source familiar with the plans.

The committees receiving the briefing are the Energy and Commerce, Homeland Security, Intelligence and Judiciary panels, as well as the Appropriations subcommittees that oversee spending at the Department of Homeland Security, the Commerce Department, the Justice Department and science budgets, and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

The briefing agencies include the FBI, the Justice Department’s National Security Division, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Across the Capitol, Senate members are set to get their own briefing next week, and the Senate Intelligence Committee has been getting regular briefings, said Rachel Cohen, a spokesperson for Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va.

A cascading set of revelations has attracted congressional attention about the scope of the breach, said to be the work of the Chinese government-connected hacking group known as Salt Typhoon. A number of panels had requested a briefing from the Biden administration, while others have sought information from the telecommunications companies themselves. The House Energy and Commerce Committee got a briefing from Lumen, but AT&T and Verizon directed the committee’s questions to the FBI, according to a source familiar with the development.

In the past week, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have spilled additional details about the breach, suggesting that the number of people who are affected or who could have been spied upon has expanded beyond the initial disclosures.

Federal agencies say they are investigating the “unauthorized access to telecommunications commercial infrastructure” by Chinese hackers. The Cyber Safety Review Board is also set to probe the incident. And the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reportedly instructed employees to reduce their cell phone usage in response to the intrusions.

Among the policy questions at stake are the implications for law enforcement access to telecommunications carriers under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, the means by which Salt Typhoon was said to have gained access.

This story was updated Nov. 7, 2024, with information from Sen. Warner’s spokesperson.