T-Mobile, one of the most popular American telecommunication companies, said that it identified and prevented cyber attack actions of ‘‘bad actors’’ within the past few weeks. These attempts originated from an unknown ‘wireline provider’s network’ that was integrated with T-Mobile’s network but the latter assured that the invader did not penetrate the consumers’ private data. The attack emerges at a time when there is growing alarm over China-based cyber spying on American telecommunications companies, specifically the Salt Typhoon campaign.
T-Mobile’s Chief Security Officer, Jeff Simon, wrote about the incident in a blog post where he said that the hackers did not breach any data and did not listen to calls or voicemails or read texts. Although similar to the Salt Typhoon operation that has been associated with Chinese cyberspying in the past, T-Mobile was cautious not to point fingers at the same hackers, as the group’s identity was still unknown.
Simon went on to explain measures that the company took to contain the compromise. Upon identifying this compromise, T-Mobile disconnected from a suspected compromised network provider to minimise threats on its system. He also disclosed that T-Mobile was in a White House meeting with some officials to deliberate on the emerging national mobile security threats and looming big-bang attacks on critical infrastructure.
The recent timely response and action by the company to cyber attack is a demonstration of its concern with mobile security and the customers. The measures in place at T-Mobile ensured that the company’s services were not interrupted, which proves that the company’s defenses are capable of repulsing more complex cyber threats. Simon reiterated the company’s assertion that its structure remained intact and that no personal customer information was lost or taken by hackers.
As the mobile security environment continues to experience growth in threats from cyber espionage campaigns, Salt Typhoon has attacked big telecom firms such as AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen and stolen the customers’ private information and tampered with their communication, particularly of government and political personalities. Both FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have admitted to ongoing probes of this major cyber espionage operation that also infiltrated the phones of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Still, these trends are rather worrisome, T-Mobile had to ensure its customers that their data was safe. With the threats of cyber attacks still looming large, T-mobile has not lost sight of the need to strengthen the mobile security to avoid any other such incidents in future.
Source::Â msn.com
