Telecom firms hit by hackers in surveillance campaign: report

Hackers have reportedly accessed the systems of more than 12 global telecommunications firms and taken personal and corporate data. 

Researchers from U.S.-Israeli cyber security firm Cybereason reported the hacks of companies in more than 30 countries. 

The researchers said the goal of the hackings was to collect information on people working in government, law enforcement and politics.

{mosads}Cybereason’s chief executive, Lior Div, told Reuters that the hackers used tools that have been connected to other attacks ascribed to China. 

“For this level of sophistication it’s not a criminal group. It is a government that has capabilities that can do this kind of attack,” he said. 

“We managed to find not just one piece of software, we managed to find more than five different tools that this specific group used,” he told the news service. 

Cybereason declined to say which companies specifically were affected, according to Reuters, but people familiar said that China was increasingly going after telecommunications firms in Western Europe.

The Hill has reached out to Cybereason for comment. 

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told Reuters that he was not aware of Cybereason’s report, but said “we would never allow anyone to engage in such activities on Chinese soil or using Chinese infrastructure.”