Politicians spied on

Eight US telecom providers infiltrated by hackers

On Wednesday, secret service representatives informed senators in detail about the hacker attack.

(Bild: thinkstockphotos.de)

The US assumes that Chinese hackers have infiltrated the systems of at least eight US telecommunications providers in order to spy on high-ranking politicians. "At this time, we do not believe that the Chinese actors have been completely removed from these networks," said Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger on Wednesday.

According to her, there is still a risk of continued interference with communications. However, the US security authorities do not believe that the hackers have accessed classified information, Neuberger told CNN. This is the highest number of affected companies that the US government has publicly disclosed about the extent of the hacking campaign.

Attack on telephone data during the election campaign
According to CNN, secret service representatives informed senators in detail about the hacker attack on Wednesday. It had already become known in October that suspected Chinese hackers had also targeted the phone data of US President-elect Donald Trump - then still a presidential candidate - and his running mate J.D. Vance.

The environment of the campaign team of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and other high-ranking members of Joe Biden's government are also said to have been targeted by the criminals.

China's government denies involvement in the hacker attacks. Beijing has not yet responded to Neuberger's statements either.