Chinese hackers target Trump’s son, son-in-law’s call, text data: report

Washington DC:

Former US President Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are being targeted by Chinese government-linked hackers as part of a massive ‘cyber espionage campaign’ targeting senior leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties, such as suspected by US officials, CNN reported.

This report comes just days before the November 5 US elections.

CNN reported, citing sources, that the hackers are targeting phone and text message data from Eric Trump and Jared Kushner and that dozens of individuals may be affected by the hackers.

Other targets include former President Donald Trump, his running mate JD Vance and individuals associated with the Harris-Walz campaign.

In addition, prominent Democrats, including the staff of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have also been targeted.

The scale of the hack was described as “much worse than the public knows,” and officials are still investigating its full impact, CNN said, citing sources familiar with the intelligence community.

In some cases, the hackers may have had access to their targets’ calling and texting data for several months. The FBI is actively notifying those involved, the report said.

Notably, the New York Times was the first to report that Eric Trump and Kushner were specifically targeted.

US officials investigating the hacking campaign, which involved intrusions into US telecom companies AT&T, Lumen and Verizon, consider it one of the most worrying national security hacks in recent history – more serious than initially suggested, as reported by CNN.

US officials consider this hacking campaign – which stems from breaches at telecom companies AT&T, Lumen and Verizon – as one of the most concerning national security hacks in recent history, more serious than previous reports suggested.

The timing of these revelations coincides with a critical FBI investigation into the hacking affecting both the Trump and Harris campaigns just before a key election.

While the hackers do not appear to be trying to influence the election, as some Iranian hackers did earlier this year, they are trying to gather information about the private communications of key officials from both parties, which would be of particular interest to Beijing.

Researchers also believe the hackers may be looking for other sensitive national security information, including details about wiretapping requests from the Justice Department, according to CNN.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)