T-Mobile's Scissors Solution: How One Cable Cut Exposed Telecom's Desperate Fight Against Chinese Spies
T-Mobile said the move stopped intruders linked to Salt Typhoon from moving deeper into its network and kept customer data from being exposed.
- In 2024, T-Mobile Chief Security Officer Jeff Simon and his team physically severed a cable at a Bellevue, Washington, data center to halt a cyber intrusion from a compromised external provider.
- The intrusion was linked to Salt Typhoon, a Chinese government-backed hacking group targeting hundreds of companies to collect phone records and senior government official data.
- Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner called it easily the "worst telecom hack in our nation's history." The campaign compromised AT&T, Verizon, Viasat, Charter, and Windstream.
- By acting quickly, T-Mobile avoided the widespread compromise experienced by other carriers. The severed cable segment now sits framed at the company's headquarters as a reminder.
- T-Mobile has since shared security lessons with peers and the White House. The incident underscores human judgment's critical role in cybersecurity against sophisticated state actors.
14 Articles
14 Articles
T-Mobile's Scissors Solution: How One Cable Cut Exposed Telecom's Desperate Fight Against Chinese Spies
In a nondescript data center in Bellevue, Washington, T-Mobile’s chief security officer grabbed a pair of scissors. He and three colleagues had raced there after spotting something odd. Unusual traffic. A router behaving strangely. Linked, it turned out, to another telecom provider already under siege. They snipped the cable. Just like that. The Chinese hackers were out. No drawn-out digital battle. No sophisticated malware purge. Just a physica…
In order to protect yourself from a cyber attack, T-Mobile has taken unusual steps in the USA years ago. They simply cut off the line that the attackers used for their purposes. read more on t3n.de
T-Mobile Cuts Network Cable to Stop Salt Typhoon Hackers
T-Mobile’s cybersecurity team reportedly turned to an unusually simple containment measure during its fight against the Chinese state-backed Salt Typhoon hacking group. The team physically cut a network cable to disrupt the threat actor’s access. Key takeaways T-Mobile physically cut a network cable to disrupt Salt Typhoon’s access after tracing suspicious activity to infrastructure connected to another telecom provider. The Salt Typhoon camp…
T-Mobile Physically Cut a Cable to Expel Salt Typhoon Hackers From Its Network
T-Mobile cybersecurity staff physically cut a network cable in 2024 after tracing suspicious activity to a compromised system linked to China-backed hacking group Salt Typhoon, according to new reporting from Bloomberg. The intervention helped the U.S. carrier avoid the broader network breaches that affected several other telecommunications companies during the same campaign. The Bloomberg report details how T-Mobile spent months searching its n…
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