2 weeks Ago By Staff Writers
Chinese state-affiliated hackers intercepted audio from the phone calls of US political figures including an unnamed campaign adviser of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the Washington Post says. The FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said on Friday they were investigating unauthorised access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by people associated with China. Trump's campaign and the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Post also reported the hackers were able to access unencrypted communications like text messages, of the individual. Reuters reported on Friday that Chinese hackers also targeted phones used by people affiliated with the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, were targeted, various media outlets reported last week.
The Trump campaign was made aware last week that Trump and Vance were among a number of people inside and outside of government whose phone numbers were targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems, the New York Times reported Friday. The Trump campaign was hacked earlier this year. The US Justice Department charged three members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps with the hack, accusing them of trying to disrupt the November 5 election.
Verizon said on Friday it was aware of a sophisticated attempt to target US telecoms and gather intelligence and is working with law enforcement. Congress is also investigating and earlier this month US lawmakers asked AT&T, Verizon and Lumen Technologies to answer questions about reports Chinese hackers accessed the networks of US broadband providers. The Chinese embassy in Washington said last week it was unaware of the specific situation but said China opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber thefts in all forms.
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