AP sources: Chinese hackers attacked phones of Trump, Vance and people from Harris campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese hackers targeted cellphones used by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, his running mate JD Vance and people associated with Kamala Harris’ Democratic campaign, sources familiar with the matter said.

It was not immediately clear what, if any, data may have been accessed. U.S. officials are continuing to investigate, according to the people, who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

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

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

US officials believe the campaigns were one of many targets of a larger cyberespionage operation launched by China. It was not immediately clear what information China could hope to obtain, although Beijing has for years engaged in large-scale hacking campaigns aimed at collecting the personal data of Americans and government officials, tracking the technology and corporate secrets of major American companies and targeting US infrastructure. .

The news that prominent political candidates have been targeted comes as US officials remain on high alert for foreign interference in the final stretch of the presidential campaign. Iranian hackers were blamed for targeting Trump campaign officials and the Department of Justice exposed large-scale disinformation campaigns organized by Russiawho is said to favor Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris.

China, on the other hand, US intelligence officials believe take a neutral stance in the race and instead focus on low-ballot races, targeting candidates from both parties based on their positions on issues key to Beijing, including support for Taiwan.

The New York Times first reported that Trump and Vance were targeted, and said the campaign was alerted by US officials this week. Three people confirmed the news to the AP, including one who said people associated with the Harris campaign were also targeted.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington said they were not familiar with the details and could not comment, but maintained that China regularly falls victim to cyber attacks and opposes such activities.

“Presidential elections are an internal matter of the United States. China has no intention and will not interfere in US elections. We hope that the American side will not make accusations against China during the elections,” the statement said.

Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Cheng did not provide any details about the Chinese operation, but released a statement accusing the Harris campaign of encouraging foreign adversaries, including China and Iran.

Over the past year, the FBI has repeatedly warned about Chinese hacking operations, with director Chris Ray telling Congress in January that investigators busted a state-sponsored group known as Volt Typhoon. This operation targeted US small office and home routers owned by private citizens and companies. Their ultimate targets included water treatment plants, the power grid, and transportation systems in the United States

last month, Wray said the FBI had disrupted a separate Chinese government campaigncalled Typhoon Flax, which targeted universities, government agencies, and other organizations and installed malware on more than 200,000 consumer devices, including cameras, VCRs, and home and office routers.

This month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese hackers penetrated the networks of US broadband providers and potentially gained access to systems that law enforcement agencies use to make wiretapping requests.