A pair of U.S. Senators say there are specific serious threats to the nation’s phone networks, but the Trump administration has yet to release a relevant report about the threats.
In a letter last week, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Mark Warner, D-Virginia — who is vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — asked for the report to be released, claiming it identifies serious telecommunications industry vulnerabilities.
Specifically, the senators claim federal inaction on the phone network security report has enabled foreign governments to spy on Americans, threatening U.S. national security.
According to the Senators, increased transparency about U.S. phone network security is essential to spurring the government and phone companies to shore up security vulnerabilities.
“The continued suppression of a report identifying serious vulnerabilities of the U.S. telecommunications sector undermines the public’s understanding of these threats and stymies an important public debate on a path forward to secure the U.S. telecommunications sector and protect the U.S. Government and all Americans who rely on that sector,” the letter said.
Additionally, the senators want Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard to encourage the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish mandatory minimum cybersecurity standards for phone networks.
The letter cites the Salt Typhoon hack of several U.S. telecommunications companies in 2024 by individuals affiliated with the Chinese government.
The Salt Typhoon cyberattack involved hackers attempting to gain critical data from broadband service providers. It went on for months and has been linked to China by U.S. government investigators, according to a Wall Street Journal report from 2024.
The target of Salt Typhoon was to take control of broadband providers’ systems and, from there, access their data and possibly launch a separate cyberattack from within their networks.
