Hackers linked to the Chinese government have intercepted audio and texts from an unnamed adviser, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. Hackers linked to the Chinese government have intercepted audio from phone calls of US political figures, including an unnamed campaign adviser to Donald Trump, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. Various media outlets reported on Friday that the Trump campaign learned last week that the Republican presidential candidate and his running mate J.D. Vance were among several people inside and outside the government whose phone numbers were targeted through an intrusion into Verizon phone systems. The FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have confirmed they are investigating unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by people linked to China, though they did not name the Trump campaign in statements. Reuters later reported that Chinese hackers also targeted phones used by people connected to Kamala Harris’ campaign. The Post has now reported that hackers were able to access audio from a phone call of a Trump campaign adviser, as well as unencrypted communications such as the person’s text messages. Trump’s campaign and the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s campaign was hacked earlier this year. The US Justice Department charged three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps over the hack, accusing them of trying to disrupt the November 5 election.
Verizon said on Friday it was aware of a sophisticated effort to target US telecoms and collect 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 of Chinese hackers accessing the US broadband providers’ networks.
The Chinese embassy in Washington DC said last week it was not aware of the specific situation but said China opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all forms.
