In early 2025, the cyber world learned of what may be the biggest telecommunications hack in U.S. history, yet you’ve likely never read about it in mainstream discussion. Between mid‑2023 and late‑2024, the group known as Salt Typhoon-linked to Chinese state-backed hackers, quietly infiltrated telecom networks tied to Verizon, AT&T, and court-authorized surveillance systems. The result: data exposure for over 1 million Americans, including metadata on high-profile figures.
What made this breach especially disruptive was not flashy ransomware, it was persistent access and deep entrenchment. In one network, the group remained undetected for 18 months. In another, six months. That’s over a year of exposure, silently harvesting signals and systems.
Why This Should Matter to U.S. Businesses Now
- Supply chain risk isn’t theoretical – If our public telecom backbone can be compromised, so can your MSP, partner, or global provider. Many enterprise services now rely on these networks for critical authentication, mobile connectivity, and secure communications.
- Detection delays are common – The fact that this went unnoticed for months highlights a pervasive blind spot in persistent access detection. Security teams often look for ransomware or disruptions-not slow-moving espionage.
- Metadata is powerful – Even without content decryption, metadata-call patterns, locations, durations, can expose habits, networks, and vulnerabilities. It’s intelligence that speaks volumes without firing an exploit.
- Regulation is trailing threat – This kind of intrusion has massive privacy and compliance implications, but U.S. regulations haven’t yet caught up. It’s time for businesses to ask tougher questions about upstream supplier cybersecurity, starting today.
Framework Security Perspective
This isn’t a hypothetical geopolitical concern- it’s proof that foundational infrastructure can be weaponized against us all. Here’s how we help clients strengthen their resilience:
- Third-party security reviews that go beyond vendor claims
- Continuous monitoring for unusual up-time and access- not just endpoint alerts
- Mapping metadata flow in centralized threats models- not just perimeter-focused ones
If high-grade network providers can be compromised and it stays hidden for months, what about your access, your logs, or your core partners?
