“Chinese cyberspies Salt Typhoon hacked emails of top US House committee members.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: Financial Times with reference to knowledgeable interlocutors, reports “European Truth”
Details: According to people familiar with the attack, Chinese intelligence gained access to email systems used by:
- some staff members of the House Committee on China;
- assistants of the committee on foreign affairs;
- intelligence committee assistants;
- assistants of the committee on armed forces.
The intrusion was discovered in December. The attacks are said to be the latest in an ongoing cyber campaign against US communications networks by the Ministry of State Security (MSS), China’s intelligence agency.
At the same time, one of the interlocutors noted that it is currently unclear whether the MGB has gained access to the legislators’ e-mails.
As noted, the MGB has been conducting Operation Salt Typhoon for several years. It allows China to access the unencrypted phone calls, text messages and voicemails of nearly every American, and in some cases, the email inboxes.
According to people familiar with the campaign, Salt Typhoon has also intercepted the calls of high-ranking US officials over the past several years.
The Chinese Embassy in the US has denied the Salt Typhoon allegations.
“We strongly oppose the US’s baseless speculations and accusations, the use of cyber security to discredit and slander China, and the spread of all kinds of misinformation about so-called Chinese hacking threats,” said embassy spokesman Liu Penyu.
In the fall of 2024, the media reported that hackers from China were likely to got access to phoneswhich were used by former US President Donald Trump and his then vice-presidential candidate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. This incident was also linked to the Salt Typhoon.
At the beginning of July 2025, it became known that in Italy a Chinese citizen was detained at the airportwho is suspected of cyber espionage in the United States.
The basis was an international arrest warrant from the United States, as the FBI suspects him of involvement in a group of hackers who were engaged in cyberespionage against the United States in the interests of China – in particular, allegedly trying to learn details about coronavirus vaccines that were being developed at the University of Texas.
After that, China blamed the US in using “extraterritorial jurisdiction” to detain a suspected Chinese hacker in Italy.