US lawmakers seek answers from telecoms on Chinese hacking report

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers asked AT&T (NYSE:), Verizon Communications (NYSE:), and Lumen Technologies on Friday to answer questions after a report Chinese hackers accessed the networks of U.S. broadband providers.

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday hackers obtained information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized wiretapping, and said the three companies were among the telecoms whose networks were breached.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, and the top Democrat on the committee Representative Frank Pallone along with Representatives Bob Latta and Doris Matsui asked the three companies to answer questions. They are seeking a briefing and detailed answers by next Friday.

“There is a growing concern regarding the cybersecurity vulnerabilities embedded in U.S. telecommunications networks,” the lawmakers said. They are asking for details on what information was seized and when the companies learned about the intrusion.

AT&T and Lumen declined to comment, while Verizon did not immediately comment.

It was unclear when the hack occurred.

Hackers might have held access for months to network infrastructure used by the companies to cooperate with court-authorized U.S. requests for communications data, the Journal said. It said the hackers had also accessed other tranches of internet traffic.

China’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that it was not aware of the attack described in the report but said the United States had “concocted a false narrative” to “frame” China in the past.