Chinese hackers have targeted the phones of Trump and his running mate Vance, according to US media reports. Harris's environment was also affected. It is unclear whether data was stolen.
According to an investigation by the AP news agency, Chinese hackers have attacked cell phones of American presidential campaigns. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal also report on it. The target of the attacks on the telecommunications company Verizon were cell phones belonging to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his deputy JD Vance.
But people close to Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris' campaign team are also said to be affected. Data from mobile phone providers can be used to see, for example, who called whom, when and for how long, and who text messages were exchanged with. But it is not clear whether data was actually stolen.
FBI doesn't provide any details
A statement from the US Federal Police FBI did not confirm who was among the potential targets. It simply announced that unauthorized access to the telecommunications infrastructure by actors with ties to China was being investigated. According to the reports, the US authorities assume that Trump and Vance are among the people whose phone numbers were targeted.
They therefore suspect that the action is part of a larger cyber espionage campaign launched by China. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung gave no details about a hacker attack from China in a statement. A Verizon spokesman said it was investigating reports of the attack and could not provide further information because the investigation is ongoing.
Multiple warnings about Chinese hackers
The FBI has repeatedly warned of Chinese hacker attacks in recent months. In January, FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress that investigators had dismantled a government-sponsored group called Volt Typhoon. According to Wray, they targeted water treatment plants, the power grid and transportation systems across the United States, as well as small office and home routers owned by individuals and companies across the United States.
Last month, Wray said the FBI stopped a separate operation by the Chinese government that targeted universities, government agencies and other organizations. The perpetrators installed malware on more than 200,000 devices, including cameras and routers for home and office use.
