Cantwell Seeks Clarity from AT&T, Verizon After Chinese Salt Typhoon Breach

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, escalated her calls for AT&T and Verizon to be transparent. The senator has requested a full account of ongoing weaknesses after the “Salt Typhoon” hack attack, a state-associated Chinese hacking spree that shut down major US communication networks.

Even though AT&T and Verizon said in December 2024 that their networks were safe, the letters from Senator Cantwell to the companies’ CEOs, John Stankey and Hans Vestberg, point to lingering skepticism among some cybersecurity specialists. “Current and former government experts continue to warn Salt Typhoon may still be in operation in U.S. networks,” Cantwell said, stressing international telecommunications networks are so complex it could enable re-entry from the threat actors.

The “Salt Typhoon” breach, which the FBI and other federal agencies have publicly acknowledged, has presented a major national security risk.

The intruders accessed sensitive geolocation data, for instance, of millions of Americans , including the whereabouts of national security operatives and military personnel seeking to avoid exposure , but also of ordinary workers and innocent bystanders, round the clock.

They also plundered phone records of many millions of Americans and, very likely, of people here and abroad who were never the subject of an investigation. They also, it appears, copied countless pages of information from U.S. law enforcement wiretap systems.

This deeply worrying breach poses very serious questions about the security of essential infrastructure and the personal privacy of our own citizens.

Senator Cantwell is requiring both companies to turn over a wealth of documents by June 26, 2025. Her demands include full copies of their remediation plans, detailed logs of any costs related to defending networks from nation-state hackers, third-party audit papers and policies on how customer data is encrypted.

The wider concern Senator Cantwell has raised American Red Cross Far beyond the specific breach, the Senator has also expressed concerns about proposed legislation. She has condemned a Republican Reconciliation bill that would force the auction of national security spectrum to private telecoms. The rise by TSMC “not only eliminates a major security concern that could be easily exploited by the PRC,“ Cantwell says, “but it also would mitigate other significant vulnerabilities like during ‘Salt Typhoon.

This continued focus serves as a clear reminder to telecomm operators (and commercial industries at large) the importance of ensuring full transparency between themselves, their customers and government regulatory bodies.