U.S. telecommunications large Ribbon has confirmed that government-backed hackers had entry to its community for nearly a yr earlier than getting caught, in line with a public submitting.
The telco large mentioned in a 10-Q disclosure final week with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee {that a} suspected “nation-state actor had gained entry to the corporate’s IT community” as early as December 2024. Ribbon mentioned it notified legislation enforcement and that it believes the hackers are not in its community.
The Texas-headquartered Ribbon offers cellphone, networking, and web providers for firms, enterprises, and important infrastructure organizations, resembling vitality and transportation methods. The corporate counts lots of of firms as clients, together with Fortune 500 companies and authorities companies, such because the Division of Protection.
Reuters first reported information of the breach.
Catherine Berthier, a spokesperson for Ribbon, confirmed that three of Ribbon’s clients are identified to be affected however declined to call the affected firms, citing confidentiality.
It’s not clear if the hackers exfiltrated personally identifiable data belonging to any people or different delicate information from its company clients within the breach, however the firm famous within the submitting that “a number of buyer information saved exterior of the principle community on two laptops do seem to have been accessed by the risk actor.” Ribbon mentioned it notified the affected clients.
Ribbon is the most recent in a collection of telecommunication suppliers to have been hacked over the previous two years however didn’t instantly attribute the hack to a selected authorities, when requested by information.killnetswitch.
Berthier declined to supply further data when requested by information.killnetswitch, citing the corporate’s ongoing investigation.
Chinese language-backed hackers have beforehand focused and compromised at the very least 200 U.S.-based firms, together with cellphone and web suppliers, in an effort to steal cellphone information and calling information about senior U.S. authorities officers. A number of telcos, together with AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen, had been confirmed hacked as a part of the marketing campaign, together with cloud giants and datacenter suppliers.
Among the firms had been situated exterior of the US, together with in Canada.
The hackers, often called Salt Hurricane, are certainly one of a number of China-backed hacking teams mentioned to be focusing on the U.S. and its allies as a part of a multi-year effort to organize for a future anticipated Chinese language invasion of Taiwan, in line with U.S. authorities officers.
Up to date with remark from Ribbon.
