CNN has learned of Chinese hackers gaining access to US politicians' emails

Chinese hackers have gained access to correspondence and calls of more than 100 US politicians. This was reported by CNN on November 21 with reference to the U.S. national security officials in the White House.

Hackers penetrated the networks of some major U.S. telecom operators to spy on phone calls and text messages. As Senator Mark Warner noted, the hack is "the worst hack of telecommunications networks in the history of our country."

He said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has notified about 150 victims, most of whom are in the District of Columbia. However, Warner emphasized that all these people called or sent messages to a large number of people, which means multiple victims.

The media outlet added that the Chinese government, for its part, has rejected the hacking allegations.

Earlier, on November 18, the Associated Press reported that foreign hackers broke into the email account of the US Library of Congress. According to the media, the attackers gained access to the correspondence of congressional and library staffers from January through September. The case has been transferred to the FBI, which is investigating the extent of the leak.

Prior to that, on November 16, The Wall Street Journal reported that a Chinese cyber espionage operation had gained access to several U.S. and international telecommunications companies. According to the publication, hackers linked to Chinese intelligence were able to break into the systems of a mobile operator as a result of a months-long campaign to spy on the phone conversations of particularly important intelligence targets.

On October 28, it was reported that Chinese hackers were intercepting calls of US politicians . The programmers are allegedly related to the Salt Typhoon group.

The US believes that the organization has long been linked to the Chinese authorities. According to the White House, the attackers gained access to audio recordings of phone calls and unencrypted messages. Washington is trying to determine how many files ended up in the hackers' possession. The WP newspaper, citing anonymous sources, said that a federal investigation was underway into the incident and that the government was trying to determine the amount of information that the hackers had managed to steal.