By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers asked AT&T (NYSE:), Verizon Communications (NYSE:) and Lumen Technologies on Friday to answer questions after a report that Chinese hackers accessed the networks of American broadband providers.
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that hackers obtained information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized wiretaps, and said the three companies were among the telecommunications companies whose networks were breached.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, and the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone, along with Reps. Bob Latta and Doris Matsui, asked the three companies to answer questions. They want a briefing and detailed answers by next Friday.
“There is growing concern about cybersecurity vulnerabilities built into U.S. telecommunications networks,” the lawmakers said. They are asking for details about what information was seized and when the companies learned of the intrusion.
AT&T and Lumen declined to comment, while Verizon did not immediately comment.
It was unclear when the attack occurred.
The hackers could have had months of access to the network infrastructure used by the companies to cooperate with requests for communications data authorized by U.S. courts, the Journal said. He said hackers had also accessed other stretches of Internet traffic.
China's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday it was not aware of the attack described in the report, but said the United States had “concocted a false narrative” to “incriminate” China in the past.
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