A new set of releases from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and the FBI in the U.S. states that the People’s Republic of China launched a state-sponsored cyber attack against Canadian telecom companies and others around the world.
The Canadian release says the ongoing cyber attacks are most likely from a hacking group sponsored by the People’s Republic of China called Salt Typhoon. These attacks are on Cisco networking equipment, and similar exploits happened in the U.S. in 2023. The equipment was patched then, but it seems like the hackers have found another back door.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security noted that possible Salt Typhoon actors compromised three network devices registered to a Canadian telecommunications company in mid-February 2025. However, the centre doesn’t name which telco was hit.
Reporting from other industry law enforcement partners suggests that these types of attacks are not limited to the telecommunications sector. That said, the attacks on the telecoms are among the worst since it has the potential for geolocating and tracking individuals, monitoring phone calls, and intercepting SMS text messages, and RCS from Android to iPhones.
The government organization warns that, through other means, the hackers can monitor network traffic and might even be able to move deeper into networks. You can learn more about the ongoing cyber attack and other useful resources on the government’s website.
Image source: Shutterstock
Source: Government of Canada
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