Chinese hackers reportedly targeted the cellphones of former President Donald Trump and vice-presidential candidate, Senator JD Vance, far-left New York Times first reported.
According to ABC News citing insiders, the Trump-Vance campaign was alerted earlier this week about potential infiltration into the devices of both Trump and Vance.
Sources familiar with the situation informed ABC News that these attacks are part of a larger, highly sophisticated cyber campaign believed to be orchestrated by state-affiliated actors from China.
The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint statement confirming an investigation into unauthorized access to U.S. telecommunications systems by individuals allegedly tied to the Chinese government.
Although their statement did not directly name the Trump-Vance campaign, insiders have confirmed the former president and his running mate are among those targeted.
The U.S. Government is investigating the unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China.
After the FBI identified specific malicious activity targeting the sector, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) immediately notified affected companies, rendered technical assistance, and rapidly shared information to assist other potential victims. The investigation is ongoing, and we encourage any organization that believes it might be a victim to engage its local FBI field office or CISA.
Agencies across the U.S. Government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector.
JUST IN: @FBI, @CISAgov confirm #China-linked hackers targeted/accessed commercial telecommunications infrastructure
Affected companies have been notified & offered technical assistance, investigation is ongoing pic.twitter.com/4kGpuiAj6n
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) October 25, 2024
New York Times reported:
Investigators are working to determine what communications data, if any, was taken or observed by the sophisticated penetration of telecom systems, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an active and highly sensitive national security case.
The type of information on phones used by a presidential candidate and his running mate could be a gold mine for an intelligence agency: Who they called and texted, how often they communicated with certain people, and how long they talked to those people could be highly valuable to an adversary like China. That sort of communications data could be even more useful if hackers could observe it in real time.
The Trump campaign team was made aware this week that the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate were among a number of people inside and outside of government whose phone numbers had been targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems, the officials said.
[…]
Trump campaign officials were told that the hackers might still be inside Verizon’s systems, but that it was unclear whether they were actively trying to take out data.
Data about the communications of a presidential and vice-presidential candidate — even absent the content of the calls and messages — could also help an adversary like China better identify and target people in Mr. Trump’s inner circle for influence operations.
Last month, Verizon Communications experienced a massive outage, causing significant disruptions in major cities across the country.
Last month, federal prosecutors indicted several Iranians for supposedly hacking into Trump campaign emails.
According to federal officials, in late June and early July, Iranian hackers sent Trump campaign emails to members of Joe Biden’s campaign.
Stolen Trump campaign emails were also sent to US media organizations.
“Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails. There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied,” the FBI said last week.
“Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations…Foreign actors are increasing their election influence activities as we approach November,” the FBI said.
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