Chinese hackers tried to hack Trump and Harris’ mobile phone data

The US government is investigating unauthorized access by Chinese hackers to commercial telecommunications infrastructure targeting the Trump and Harris campaigns.

The campaigns were informed of the potential hacking of cellphones used by former President Trump and his running mate JD Vance, as well as members of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. case.

“After the FBI identified specific malicious activity targeting this sector, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) immediately notified affected companies, provided technical assistance and quickly shared information to help other potential victims.” — the FBI and CISA told Fox. News Digital in a joint statement.

The FBI and CISA said the investigation is ongoing and “we encourage any organization that believes they may be a victim to contact their local FBI or CISA office. US government agencies are working together to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry. partners for strengthening cyber defense in the commercial communications sector”.

We want the FBI to tell us about the Trump campaign hack: Congressman Jim Jordan

The hackers are believed to be linked to the Chinese government’s intelligence services, The Journal reported.

Read on the Fox News app

“We are aware that a highly skilled nation-state actor has reportedly targeted several US telecommunications providers for intelligence gathering,” Verizon said in a statement. “Together with federal law enforcement, industry colleagues and third-party cyber experts, we are working to confirm, assess and remediate any potential impact. Verizon is committed to assisting law enforcement in this investigation. As this is an active investigation, we have no further comment at this time.”

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators were working to determine whether any campaign data was stolen, adding that other people in the US government may have been targeted.

The Trump campaign blamed the attack on the Biden-Harris administration.

“This is a continuation of election meddling by Kamala Harris and Democrats who will stop at nothing, including encouraging China and Iran to attack critical American infrastructure, to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House,” Stephen Cheng, Trump campaign communications director . , Fox News Digital reported on Friday.

3 Iran-Linked Hackers Charged with Plot Against Trump: Doj

The latest apparent attack comes months after Trump campaign officials said campaign data was targeted hackers from Iran.

In September, three hackers linked to Iran were indicted in connection with a hacking plot against the Trump campaign.

Iran Tried to Influence Election by Sending Stolen Trump Campaign Materials to Biden Camp, FBI

The three hackers, who are accused of working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were allegedly “involved in a large-scale hacking campaign that used phishing and social engineering techniques to compromise the accounts of current and former US government officials, media representatives, non-governmental organizations and individuals , related to political campaigns in the USA”.

“These documents were illegally obtained from foreign sources hostile to the United States in order to interfere in the 2024 election and wreak havoc on our entire democratic process,” Stephen Cheng, the Trump campaign’s communications director, said in August after Politico reported that the campaign became the target of spearfishing.

Fox News Digital also reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.

This is not the first election cycle that a foreign state has attempted to influence the election through hacking.

In 2016, Russia infamously hacked the emails of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and the DNC and released them through Wikileaks during the election.

Source of the original article: Chinese hackers tried to hack Trump and Harris’ mobile phone data