The US believes that an alleged sweeping Chinese cyber espionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon targeted and recorded telephone calls of “very senior” American political figures, a White House official said on Saturday.
The comments by Anne Neuberger, the US deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, to reporters at the Manama Dialogue regional security conference in Bahrain’s capital revealed new details of the campaign.
While a large number of Americans’ metadata likely has been stolen, US officials understand that “the purpose of the operation was more focused,” Neuberger said.
“We believe … the actual number of calls that they took, recorded and took, was really more focused on very senior political individuals,” she continued.
