In November 2024, the Wall Street Journal revealed that a cyber-group known as Salt Typhoon had hacked into T-Mobile. The group had previously breached into AT&T, Verizon, Lumen Technologies, and other international telecom networks, notably exploiting vulnerabilities in Cisco Systems routers. Investigators believed that the group employed advanced methods, including artificial intelligence, to infiltrate US telecom infrastructure over at least eight months. The hackers accessed cellphone lines used by senior national security and policy officials, as well as prominent politicians, including then-former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate JD Vance. This access potentially allowed the attackers to collect call logs, unencrypted texts, and communication patterns. They also infiltrated systems used for US surveillance compliance, further heightening counterintelligence concerns. In January 2025, the US Department of Treasury tied Salt Typhoon to the Ministry of State Security, the PRC’s main civilian intelligence agency.