Satellite communications provider Viasat has become the latest target of the Chinese state-sponsored hacking group known as Salt Typhoon, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The espionage group, previously tied to intrusions at major U.S. telecom providers, breached Viasat earlier this year, though the company says there was no evidence of customer impact.
Viasat, which delivers satellite broadband services to governments and industries worldwide—including defense, energy, and maritime sectors—confirmed that the breach was traced to a compromised device. “Viasat and its independent third-party cybersecurity partner investigated a report of unauthorized access… no evidence was found to suggest any impact to customers,” the company said in a statement to BleepingComputer.
The company has worked with federal authorities to investigate the incident and believes the breach has been contained. However, further details remain undisclosed due to the sensitive nature of intelligence-sharing with government partners.
Salt Typhoon, previously linked to breaches at AT&T, Verizon, Charter, and several other global telecoms, has been active since at least 2019. U.S. agencies including the FBI, CISA, and NSA have warned that the group gained access to private communications of a limited number of U.S. government officials and even wiretap infrastructure used by law enforcement.
This is not the first time Viasat has been targeted. In 2022, Russian hackers wiped out tens of thousands of Viasat KA-SAT modems across Europe using the AcidRain malware, an attack that disrupted Ukrainian communications just before the Russian invasion.
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