{"id":3091493,"date":"2026-02-10T08:19:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=3091493"},"modified":"2026-02-10T08:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:39:29","slug":"singapore-china-backed-hackers-targeted-largest-phone-companies-salt-typhoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/02\/10\/singapore-china-backed-hackers-targeted-largest-phone-companies-salt-typhoon\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore says China-backed hackers targeted its four largest phone companies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Singapore&#8217;s government has blamed a known Chinese cyber-espionage group for targeting four of its top telecommunication companies as part of a months-long attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csa.gov.sg\/news-events\/press-releases\/largest-multi-agency-cyber-operation-mounted-to-counter-threat-posed-by-advanced-persistent-threat--apt--actor-unc3886-to-singapore-s-telecommunications-sector\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">a statement Monday<\/a>, Singapore confirmed for the first time that the hackers, known as UNC3886, targeted the country&#8217;s telecoms infrastructure, including its largest companies: Singtel, StarHub, M1, and Simba Telecom. The government previously said that it was responding to an unspecified attack on its critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the intruders were able to breach and access some systems, they did not disrupt services or access personal information, said K. Shanmugam, the country&#8217;s coordinating minister for national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google-owned cybersecurity unit Mandiant <a href=\"https:\/\/cloud.google.com\/blog\/topics\/threat-intelligence\/chinese-vmware-exploitation-since-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">previously linked<\/a> UNC3886 as an espionage group likely working on behalf of China. The Chinese government is known to conduct regular cyber-espionage operations, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2024\/10\/13\/meet-the-chinese-typhoon-hackers-preparing-for-war\/\">prepositioning for disruptive attacks<\/a> ahead of an anticipated invasion of Taiwan, which Beijing has routinely denied, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sustainability\/boards-policy-regulation\/singapore-says-cyber-espionage-group-targeted-telco-infrastructure-2026-02-09\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">per Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">UNC3886 is known for exploiting <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/04\/25\/techcrunch-reference-guide-to-security-terminology\/#zero-day\">zero-day vulnerabilities<\/a> in routers, firewalls, and virtualized environments, where cybersecurity tools that are designed to spot malware cannot typically reach. The hacking group has <a href=\"https:\/\/cloud.google.com\/blog\/topics\/threat-intelligence\/vmware-esxi-zero-day-bypass\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">targeted the defense, technology, and telecom industries<\/a> across the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the case of the attack on Singapore&#8217;s top telcos, Shanmugam said the hackers used advanced tools, like rootkits, to gain long-term persistence to their systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;In one instance, they were able to gain limited access to critical systems but did not get far enough to have been able to disrupt services,&#8221; according to the government&#8217;s statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Per Reuters, the telcos said in a joint statement that the companies regularly face distributed denial-of-service and other malware attacks. &#8220;We adopt defence-in-depth mechanisms to protect our networks and conduct prompt remediation when any issues are detected,&#8221; the statement read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The attacks on Singapore&#8217;s telcos follow similar but distinctly different attacks on hundreds of telecoms companies around the world in recent years, including <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/08\/27\/fbi-says-chinas-salt-typhoon-hacked-at-least-200-us-companies\/\">in the United States<\/a>. Multiple governments have linked <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/02\/06\/chinas-salt-typhoon-hackers-broke-into-norwegian-companies\/\">these attacks<\/a> to a China-backed group dubbed Salt Typhoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Singapore said the attack carried out by UNC3886 has &#8220;not resulted in the same extent of damage as cyberattacks elsewhere,&#8221; referring to the Salt Typhoon hacks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Singaporean government said the China-backed hackers gained &#8220;limited access to critical systems&#8221; run by the country&#8217;s top four telecommunication giants, but said they did not disrupt services or steal customers&#8217; data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133574210,"featured_media":3091494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tc-featured-article":false,"tc-header-option":"","tc-breaking-news":false,"tc-article-brief":false,"carmot_uuid":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-02-10T16:19:44Z","apple_news_api_id":"713d175a-6225-4a09-9b3e-bc98d10e2146","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-02-10T16:19:44Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AcT0XWmIlSgmbPryY0Q4hRg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"tc_subtitle":"","tc_featured_image_disabled":false,"tc_exclude_from_rss_feed":false,"tc_exclude_from_content_rivers":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[577065682,21587494],"tags":[577307047,576788508,449559144,6148720],"tc_region":[577063494,577037500],"tc_event":[],"tc_storyline_tax":[],"coauthors":[576607994],"class_list":["post-3091493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-policy","category-security","tag-salt-typhoon","tag-mandiant","tag-telecoms-infrastructure","tag-cyberattack","tc_region-china","tc_region-singapore"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.1 (Yoast SEO v25.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Singapore says China-backed hackers targeted its four largest phone companies | TechCrunch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Singaporean government said the China-backed hackers gained &quot;limited access to critical systems&quot; 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