Chinese state-linked hackers have intercepted audio recordings of US politicians' phone calls, including an adviser from the campaign staff of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the Washington Post newspaper reported, cited by Reuters and BTA.
The FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Friday they are investigating unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure linked to individuals with ties to China.
Trump's staff and the FBI have not yet responded to requests for comment, Reuters notes.
„The Washington Post” reports that hackers were able to gain access to unencrypted communications, such as text messages and audio recordings.
Chinese hackers have also targeted phones used by people associated with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris' campaign.
Last week, various media outlets reported that, in addition to Trump, his vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, was also targeted by cyberattacks. Trump's staff has been notified that he and Vance are among a number of government and non-government officials whose phone numbers have been compromised by a hack into the systems of the telecommunications company “Verizon” (Verizon), informed the “New York Times” newspaper on Friday.
Trump's headquarters was hacked earlier this year. The US Justice Department blamed three members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the attack and said they were trying to disrupt elections scheduled for November 5.
„Verizon“ said on Friday it had information about a high-tech attempt to target US telecoms for intelligence gathering. The company added that it is cooperating with law enforcement.
The US Congress is also investigating, with US lawmakers earlier this month asking “AT&T” (AT&T), “Verizon“ and “Lumen Technologies” (Lumen Technologies) to answer questions about Chinese hackers' access to US broadband providers' networks.
Last week, the Chinese embassy in Washington said it was not aware of the specific situation, but stressed that China opposes and actively combats cyber-attacks and cyber-theft in all forms.