A group of hackers with connections to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have compromised the enter National Guard network, according to a Department of Homeland Security memo.
A Department of Defense (DOD) report found that the hacking group, known as Salt Typhoon, had “extensively compromised a U.S. state’s Army National Guard network” from March 2024 through December, the June 11 memo revealed, obtained by NBC News.
The memo did not divulge which state’s National Guard network had been breached, yet according to the DoD, helmed by Pete Hegseth, the sensitive data included “these networks’ administrator credentials and network diagrams—which could be used to facilitate follow-on Salt Typhoon hacks of these units.”
According to the DHS, it opens the door for the group to “facilitate the hacking of other states’ Army National Guard units, and possibly many of their state-level cybersecurity partners.”
The DHS memo warned, “if the PRC-associated cyber actors that conducted the hack succeeded in the latter, it could hamstring state-level cybersecurity partners’ ability to defend US critical infrastructure against PRC cyber campaigns in the event of a crisis or conflict.”
The news of the attack adds to Hegseth’s growing plate of challenges as defense secretary and head of the Pentagon on the heels of Signalgate and rebukes from Democrats and Republicans that the former Fox News host is in over his head.
Yet Hegseth has persisted by President Trump’s side, posting photos of himself working out with troops and recently instituting a racially-tinged ban on eyelash extensions and nail polish for service members.
The DOD report noted 1,462 configuration files linked to 70 US government and CNI identities across 12 sectors were stolen between January 2023 and March 2024. Salt Typhoon has also previously targeted AT&T and Verizon systems in attacks, ITPro reported.
A National Guard Bureau spokesperson confirmed the network compromise to NBC News.
“While we cannot provide specific details on the attack or our response to it, we can say this attack has not prevented the National Guard from accomplishing assigned state or federal missions, and that NGB continues to investigate the intrusion to determine its full scope,” the spokesperson said.
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