News Summary

Hackers suspected to be working on behalf of the Chinese government have exploited critical vulnerabilities in Cisco devices to compromise Canadian telecommunications companies. The group, known as Salt Typhoon, is linked to the People’s Republic of China and has previously targeted telecom providers globally. They exploited a maximum-severity vulnerability, identified as CVE-2023-20198, which had been patched 16 months earlier. Despite the availability of the patch, Salt Typhoon managed to breach systems by exploiting this flaw. The Canadian Cyber Centre and the FBI have both confirmed these malicious cyber activities. Salt Typhoon has also been connected to previous hacks in the U.S., including major telecom companies like Verizon and AT&T. Their activities included monitoring wiretap systems and accessing various types of Internet traffic.