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The White House just held a press call to discuss the latest on China's "Salt Typhoon" hacking campaign against telecommunications companies. New detail: "At least eight" U.S. telcos have been hacked, deputy national security adviser for cyber Anne Neuberger said.

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China accessed "a large number of Americans' metadata" while hunting for the calls and texts of specific targets, the sr official said. "We do not believe every cell phone in the country [was accessed] ... We believe it was likely more regional, given their focus" on government and politicians.

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"President Biden has been briefed multiple times on this compromise," Neuberger said. WH "has made it a priority for the federal government to do everything it can to get to the bottom of this." WH coordination group meeting daily at staff level, thrice weekly at the leadership level.

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Neuberger said the White House wants to "require ... minimum cybersecurity practices at telecoms, from secure configurations to architecting to monitor for anomalous behavior to strong key management." She cited existing rules for pipelines, rail, aviation, and ports.

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"We believe that if the companies had in place minimum [security] practices … that would make it far riskier, harder, and costlier for the Chinese to gain access and maintain access," the senior administration official added.

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Echoing previous Biden admin comments, the senior admin official said: “We believe that the voluntary approach has proved inadequate for the most critical companies that underpin our critical infrastructure. So we want to complement CISA’s efforts with regulatory efforts."

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Can these new regulations pass in a GOP-controlled Washington? "We believe that defending against China's program requires these mandated cybersecurity practices, and hence, we want to engage the Hill for that bipartisan support," the senior administration official said.

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Meanwhile, Neuberger said the Commerce Department's technology supply-chain security office is "preparing actions designed to address risks posed by [IT and communications technology] transactions" that have a "nexus" to China. More bans on telecom-related transactions with Chinese firms?

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The Biden administration "takes the threat of PRC or other foreign adversary engagement in our [tech and telecom] infrastructure seriously," Neuberger said, "and will continue to pursue actions that best safeguard the national security of all Americans."