Chinese state-sponsored hackers known as Salt Typhoon successfully infiltrated and maintained persistent access to a U.S. state’s Army National Guard network for nearly ten months, from March 2024 through December 2024, according to a Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by NBC News. The group’s ability to maintain undetected access for extended periods—with Cisco reporting instances of up to three years in some environments—suggests deployment of advanced rootkit technologies and living-off-the-land techniques that blend malicious activities with legitimate system processes, making detection exceptionally challenging for traditional security monitoring systems. The hackers successfully exfiltrated geographic location maps, internal network topology diagrams, and personal information of service members, creating a comprehensive intelligence profile that could facilitate future attacks against other National Guard units and state-level cybersecurity partners. The sophisticated cyberespionage campaign represents a significant escalation in Beijing’s ongoing cyber operations against American military infrastructure, potentially compromising sensitive defense information and operational security protocols. NBC News analysts noted that the group had previously compromised at least eight major U.S. internet and phone companies, including AT&T and Verizon, using these access points to monitor communications of the Harris and Trump presidential campaigns and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office. With years of experience under his belt in Cyber Security, he is covering Cyber Security News, technology and other news. Cyber Security News is a Dedicated News Platform For Cyber News, Cyber Attack News, Hacking News & Vulnerability Analysis. The attack vector likely exploited the dual nature of National Guard units, which operate under both federal Department of Defense authority and state governance structures.
This Cyber News was published on cybersecuritynews.com. Publication date: Wed, 16 Jul 2025 20:25:16 +0000