Sen. Kelly Says CCP Still Has Access to US Telecom Networks

‘They’re still there, and we have yet to figure out a way to kick them off,’ he said.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) speaks with reporters while waiting to catch the Senate subway to the Hart Senate Office Building from the U.S. Capitol on July 25, 2024. Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) told attendees of the McCain Institute’s Sedona Forum on May 3 that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) still has access to the nine U.S. telecommunication companies that were hacked in December 2024 during the Salt Typhoon cyberintrusion coordinated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security.

“They did it in such a way that it was very hard for us to detect that they were there and not done through the typical way that you would do something with malware,” he said during a panel discussion.