NSA Director Wants Industry to Disclose Details of Telecom Hacks

The director of the National Security Agency on Wednesday urged the private sector to take swift, collective action to share key details about breaches they have suffered at the hands of Chinese hackers who have infiltrated US telecommunications.

General Timothy Haugh, a four-star Air Force general who leads the NSA and Cyber Command, told Bloomberg News at the National Security Innovation Forum in Washington that public disclosure would help find and oust the hackers, as the US continues to try to understand a new spate of damaging mass breaches. In calling for more disclosure, Haugh didn’t identity specific companies.

Haugh said he wants to provide a public “hunt guide” so cybersecurity professionals and companies can search out the hackers and eradicate them from telecommunications networks.

“The ultimate goal would be to be able to lay bare exactly what happened in ways that allow us to better posture as a nation and for our allies to be better postured,” he said, adding the US is reliant on industry to share insights into what happened on their own networks.

US authorities have confirmed Chinese hackers have infiltrated US telecommunications in what Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, this week described as a “sprawling and catastrophic” infiltration. AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile are among those targeted.

Through those intrusions, the hackers targeted communications of a “limited number” of people in politics and government, US officials have said. They include Vice President Kamala Harris’ staff, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, as well as staffers for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, according to Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley.

Representatives of the Chinese government have denied the allegations.

China is “doing this on a scale en masse and as a national effort,” Haugh said. The US experience and response is more disjointed, given the limited reach of different law enforcement agencies and the dependence on information from the private sector. There are multiple investigations underway associated with the telecommunications breaches, he said.

“Everybody is in a slightly different place as it relates to Salt Typhoon,” Haugh said, referring to Microsoft Corp.’s name for the group believed to be behind the telecommunications breaches.

Two cybersecurity experts who requested anonymity to speak freely have privately complained about the lack of information shared that could otherwise help them and others understand, find and tackle the hacks.

Detailed public disclosures would mean that even if some companies haven’t seen the intrusions yet, “they can begin to put countermeasures in place,” Haugh said. It would also help other nations uncover and root it out too, Haugh said.

“It’s going to take collective work,” he said, adding the “speed” with which everyone collaborates is a key step.