Officials from the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency say the major Chinese hack began in late spring, and they are strongly urging Americans to use encrypted communications.

China-linked spies are still lurking inside U.S. telecommunications networks roughly six months after American officials started investigating the intrusions, senior officials told reporters Tuesday.

US authorities have recently revealed a US telecommunications hack that was said to have compromised the networks of multiple communications companies. The FBI and CISA released a joint statement earlier this month identifying "PRC (People's Republic of China)-affiliated actors" as the cause of the hack,

Leaders of the big telecommunications companies were summoned to the White House to discuss strategies for overhauling the security of the nation’s telecommunications networks amid growing alarm at the scope of a Chinese hack.

The Chinese government espionage campaign that has deeply penetrated more than a dozen U.S. telecommunications companies is the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history — by far,” a senior U.S. senator told The Washington Post in an interview this week.

Salt Typhoon deployed various methods to break into telecommunications firms that went far beyond a singular run-of-the-mill credential-stealing attempt, according to a person familiar.

All the major U.S. carriers, including AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, were impacted, according to the Post. Incredibly, Warner says the hackers are still inside the U.S. system and there’s no obvious way to get them out that doesn’t involve physically replacing old equipment, according to Warner.

A top US Senator has labeled a series of telecom hacks, suspected to be caused by China, as the country's worst-ever telecom hack. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a former telecom venture capitalist, told the Washington Post, it's the "worst telecom hack in our nation’s history."

US officials are still trying to help major telecom providers evict Chinese government-backed hackers from their networks and don’t have a timeline for when that will be done, officials said Tuesday.

Chinese hackers who penetrated U.S. telecoms likely haven't been fully evicted partially due to shifting tactics made in response to public disclosures, federal