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The U.S. government is investigating unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by Chinese hackers, targets of which include the Trump and Harris campaigns.
The campaigns have been informed of the potential breach of cellphones used by former President Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, and members of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
‘After the FBI identified specific malicious activity targeting the sector, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) immediately notified affected companies, rendered technical assistance, and rapidly shared information to assist other potential victims,’ the FBI and CISA told Fox News Digital in a joint statement.
The FBI and CISA said the investigation was ongoing and ‘we encourage any organization that believes it might be a victim to engage its local FBI field office or CISA. Agencies across the U.S. Government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector.’
The hackers are believed to be connected to the Chinese government’s intelligence services, The Journal reported.
‘We are aware that a highly sophisticated nation-state actor has reportedly targeted several U.S. telecommunications providers to gather intelligence,’ telecommunications company Verizon said in a statement. ‘Along with federal law enforcement, industry peers 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. Since this is an active investigation, we have no additional comment at this time.’
The anonymous officials said that investigators are working to find out if any data was stolen from the campaigns, adding that other people in the U.S. government may have been targeted by the attackers.
The Trump campaign blamed the Biden-Harris administration over the attack.
‘This is the continuation of election interference by Kamala Harris and Democrats who will stop at nothing, including emboldening China and Iran attacking critical American infrastructure, to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House,’ Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, told Fox News Digital on Friday.
A person familiar with the matter also confirmed to Fox News Digital that the Harris campaign was also targeted.
The latest apparent attack comes months after the Trump campaign said campaign data was targeted by hackers from Iran.
In September, three hackers linked to Iran were indicted in connection with a hacking plot against the Trump campaign.
The three hackers, who are accused of working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were allegedly ‘engaged in a wide-ranging hacking campaign that used spear-phishing and social engineering techniques to target and compromise the accounts of current and former U.S. government officials, members of the media, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals associated with U.S. political campaigns.’
‘These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,’ Cheung said in August after Politico reported that the campaign had been targeted through spear phishing.
Fox News Digital has also reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
It’s not the first election cycle a foreign power has attempted to influence the election via hacking.
In 2016, the Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, and the DNC infamously had their emails hacked by Russia and released through Wikileaks during the election.