AT&T and Verizon say their networks are safe after the Salt Typhoon hackers linked to China.

US telecom giants AT&T and Verizon have said they will protect their networks after being linked to China. Salt storm cyberespionage group.

In a statement provided to TechCrunch on Monday, AT&T spokesman Alexander Byers said the company had “nothing to do with international partners on our network at this time.”

Verizon spokesman Richard Young said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch on Sunday that the company “is aware of what happened to the cyber threat actor in this country,” and that it had not been aware of the cyber activity “for some time.”

Verizon’s information on the incident has been verified by a “highly respected cybersecurity firm,” the company said, but Young declined to name a third party.

While the extent of the Storm breach is not yet known, AT&T said the Chinese hackers targeted “a small number of people interested in foreign intelligence”, adding that it was aware of “a few instances” where a person’s personal information was compromised. .

Verizon said the hack targeted “a small number of customers in the state.”

“Upon learning of this, Verizon took steps to protect its customers and its network, including working with law enforcement and national defense agencies, industry partners, and private security companies,” said Verizon CEO Vandana Venkatesh. in a sentence. “After extensive work to address this incident, we can confirm that Verizon has an active record of this incident.”

This marks the first time AT&T and Verizon have acknowledged their involvement in the Salt Typhoon campaign. News broke in October that hackers had compromised the networks of major US phone and internet companies to gain access to the personal information of US citizens.

US officials reported earlier this month that at least eight telecommunications providers had been contacted, including Lumen (formerly CenturyLink) and T-Mobile. On Friday, Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, said a ninth person had been found, according to Reuters.

Neuberger, who did not identify the newly identified person, said one of the nine compromised phones involved a management account that had more than 100,000 routers.

Updated with a comment posted after AT&T.