Chinese hackers target Trump, Vance and Harris campaign – DW – 10/26/2024

Chinese hackers targeted phones used by US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, his running mate JD Vance and people linked to Kamala Harris’ Democratic campaign, US media reported on Friday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the New York Times said Trump and Vance’s cellphones had been selected by the hacking group and that investigators were working to determine what, if any, communications were recorded.

The revelation was also reported by the Associated Press, which cited its own anonymous sources.

Within a few hours of the first report, the Wall Street Journal reported that hackers also targeted the phones of people involved with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign.

It was not clear what data the hackers were able to obtain from these devices, WSJ said, citing its own sources.

Trump campaign told about a 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 the government whose phone numbers were targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems.

A joint statement from the FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency did not say politicians were among the potential targets, but said they were investigating “unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors linked to the People’s Republic 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 statement said.

Verizon said it was aware of a sophisticated effort to attack U.S. telecom companies and gather intelligence.

The largest telecom company in the United States added that it is cooperating with law enforcement agencies.

The Trump campaign has not confirmed that the couple’s phones were targeted. But Steven Cheung, the campaign’s communications director, accused Harris of encouraging 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 cyber threats to critical infrastructure and next month’s presidential election, in addition to the spread of disinformation by rival states in an attempt to influence the outcome.

Last month, the US Justice Department charged three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in a hacking attack on the 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 that targeted small office and home technology.

Their ultimate targets included water treatment plants, the electrical grid, and transportation systems throughout the country.

Last month, Wray said the FBI had interrupted a separate Chinese security breach that installed malicious software on more than 200,000 consumer devices, including cameras, VCRs and Wi-Fi routers.

According to Wray, the hackers targeted universities, government agencies and other large organizations.

Before the November 5 elections, a final poll was conducted by the New York Times/Siena College published on Friday that Harris and Trump each received 48% of the votes.

mm/rm (AP, Reuters)