US House committee seeks records from DHS on Chinese telecom hacking

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee on Monday asked the Homeland Security Department to turn over documents on the federal government’s response to reported massive Chinese hacking incidents.

House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green and the chairs of two subcommittees asked DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to turn over records detailing the government’s response to two major Chinese hacking incidents, including "Salt Typhoon," which lawmakers have called the largest telecommunications hack in U.S. history, and "Volt Typhoon," which involved espionage into critical infrastructure organizations.

The Salt Typhoon hack allegedly exposed a huge swathe of Americans’ call logs to Chinese spies and rattled the U.S. intelligence community. In some cases, hackers are alleged to have intercepted conversations, including between prominent U.S. politicians and government officials.

"Despite officials raising the alarm about Volt and Salt Typhoon, we still know very little about them - except that Volt Typhoon, in particular, continues to compromise our critical infrastructure," said the letter also signed by Representatives Andrew Garbarino and Josh Brecheen.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The committee wants documents related to both hacking incidents and said the Biden administration did not disclose details of "Salt Typhoon" until after the incident was reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The letter seeks by March 31 documents detailing "actions taken with relevant agencies/departments, industry stakeholders, victims, and any other relevant parties once the threat from Volt Typhoon and Salt Typhoon was detected."

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The lawmakers want to know when DHS became aware of the threats and damages caused by the intrusions, and a timeline on the government’s response.

Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T) have said they were impacted by Salt Typhoon but said in December their networks are now secure.

Beijing has denied responsibility for the reported cyberespionage campaigns.

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