Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said over the weekend that the communist China’s recent breach of several major U.S. telecommunication companies represented the largest breach he’s ever seen.
Rubio made the remarks during a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” with Margaret Brennan when asked about Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner’s (D-VA) recent assessment that the breach was the most serious he’s ever seen.
“Do you know if China has been able to access the audio of Americans’ phone calls?” Brennan asked.
“I’m not going to comment on what they accessed, but I agree with Mark Warner’s statement,” Rubio responded. “It is an egregious, outrageous and dangerous breach of our telecommunications systems across multiple companies.”
“I think as time goes on, we’re going to learn more about it,” he continued. “Some of it will be made public. I think there’s more that’s still being gathered. It’s a very serious situation that we face.”
“And I think one that is quite threatening, maybe not directly to the election per se, but certainly to the national security of our country moving forward,” he added. “It’s a vulnerability that no one imagined or anticipated, but here it is.”
China hacked U.S. telecommunications companies as part of an espionage campaign targeting former President Donald Trump, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), and others.
Microsoft cybersecurity experts dubbed the group connected to the Chinese government “Salt Typhoon” with “Typhoon” denoting that the operation is Chinese and “Salt” indicating that it is a counterintelligence operation.
The Biden-Harris administration was caught flat-footed by the breach and the Cyber Safety Review Board, which is part of Homeland Security, indicated that it will initiate a review of the hack “at the appropriate time.”
The hack also reportedly targeted aides of Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Some of the companies hacked included Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen, reports said. Officials indicated that the known scale of the attack has grown dramatically as investigators continue to learn more.
The hackers are believed to have “compromised the phones of a number of prominent individuals in politics and national security, including some in the U.S. government,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
One of the concerns that officials had about the Chinese discovering who U.S. officials were calling was that it would give them a list of people to target in influence operations aimed at manipulating decision makers.
The New York Times reported that the Chinese are believed to have hacked systems used by the companies to comply with court-authorized surveillance wiretaps, including Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act collection, one of the secretive measures the U.S. has to discover terrorists and spies.
The Journal reported earlier this month that the scale of China’s espionage is “unprecedented” as it looks to become the world’s leading superpower by stealing technology.
WATCH:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says the Chinese hacking of U.S. telecom companies is a threat “maybe not directly to the election per se, but certainly to the national security of our country moving forward.” He says he won’t comment on… pic.twitter.com/isuRewt1qz
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 3, 2024
