The U.S. government is investigating reports of the China-based hacking of three major American telecommunications firms, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) said on Sunday. Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh said the NSA would work together with other government agencies and private-sector companies in order to “really understand what has happened.”
“I think it’s premature for us to talk about this specific case,” Haugh said. “We’re really at an initial stage.”
Regarding news reports that said Chinese hackers may have managed to gain access to systems employed by federal authorities to carry out court-approved eavesdropping, Haugh said, “I think we are in the early days of investigation.”
The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have reported on the hack, citing unnamed officials who said that Chinese hackers had breached AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen.
NTD has reached out to the 3 companies. AT&T declined to comment, while neither Verizon nor Lumen responded before this article was published.