Chinese hackers target Trump and Vance’s cellphones

Chinese hackers have targeted cellphones used by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, as well as people linked to Kamala Harris’ Democratic campaign, sources said.

An FBI statement did not confirm that Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance were among the potential targets, but said it was investigating “unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors associated with the People’s Republic of China.”

“Agencies across the U.S. government are working together to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defenses in the commercial communications sector,” the FBI said.

US officials believe the Republican couple are among a number of people whose phone numbers have been targeted and suspect it is part of a larger cyber-espionage campaign launched by China.

The New York Times first reported that Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance were targeted and said the campaign was warned by U.S. officials this week.

The FBI has repeatedly warned about Chinese hacking operations over the past year, with FBI Director Chris Wray telling Congress in January that researchers had disrupted a state-sponsored group known as Volt Typhoon.

That operation targeted U.S.-based small office and home routers owned by individuals and businesses. Their ultimate targets included water treatment plants, the electrical grid and transportation systems in the US.

Last month, Mr. Wray said the FBI had interrupted a separate Chinese government campaign that targeted universities, government agencies and other organizations and installed malicious software on more than 200,000 consumer devices, including cameras, video recorders and home and office routers.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said they were not aware of the details and could not comment, but asserted that China routinely falls victim to cyber attacks and opposes this activity.

“The presidential elections are internal affairs of the United States. China has no intention and will not interfere in the US elections. We hope that the US will not make accusations against China during the elections,” the statement said.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung did not provide details of the Chinese operation but issued a statement accusing the Harris campaign of emboldening foreign adversaries, including China and Iran.

The Wall Street Journal reported this month that Chinese hackers had burrowed into the networks of U.S. broadband providers and may have gained access to systems that law enforcement uses for wiretap requests.