Chinese hackers targeted phones used by US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, his running mate JD Vance and people associated with the Democratic campaign of Kamala Harris, US media outlets reported Friday
Citing people familiar with the matter, the New York Times said Trump and Vance’s cellphones had been picked out by the hacking group and that investigators were working to determine what communications were taken, if any.
The revelation was also reported by the Associated Press, which cited its own anonymous sources.
Within a couple of hours of the first report, the Wall Street Journal reported that hackers had also targeted the phones of people associated with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign.
It wasn’t clear what data the hackers were able to obtain from any of these devices, WSJ said, citing its own sources.
Trump campaign told of hacking attempt
The New York Times said the Trump campaign was informed this week that the two running mates were among several people inside and outside of government whose phone numbers were targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems.
A joint statement from the FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency did not mention politicians were among the potential targets, but said they were investigating “unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China.”
“Agencies across the US Government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector,” the statement said.
Verizon said it was aware of a sophisticated attempt to reportedly target US telecoms and gather intelligence.
The largest telecom company in the United States added it was working with law enforcement.
Trump’s campaign team did not confirm that the pair’s phones were targeted. But Steven Cheung, the campaign’s communications director, accused Harris of emboldening China and Iran to attack US infrastructure to prevent Trump from returning to office, without providing evidence.
Repeated warnings of hacking by foreign actors
US authorities have repeatedly warned of cybersecurity threats to critical infrastructure and next month’s presidential election, alongside the spread of disinformation by rival states to try to influence the outcome.
Last month, the US Justice Department charged three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps with a hacking attack on Trump and Harris’ campaigns in August.
FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress in January that investigators had disrupted a state-sponsored group known as Volt Typhoon, which had targeted small office and home technology.
Their ultimate targets included water treatment plants, the electrical grid and transportation systems across the country.
Last month, Wray said that the FBI had interrupted a separate Chinese security breach that installed malicious software on more than 200,000 consumer devices, including cameras, video recorders and wifi routers.
The hackers had targeted universities, government agencies and other large organizations, according to Wray.
Ahead of the November 5 election, a final poll by the New York Times/Siena College published Friday put Harris and Trump tied at 48% each for the popular vote.
mm/rm (AP, Reuters)
