The New York Times reported that Chinese hackers targeted phones used by former President Donald Trump and VP candidate Sen. JD Vance.
Investigators are working to determine what communications data, if any, was taken or observed by the sophisticated penetration of telecom systems, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an active and highly sensitive national security case.The type of information on phones used by a presidential candidate and his running mate could be a gold mine for an intelligence agency: Who they called and texted, how often they communicated with certain people, and how long they talked to those people could be highly valuable to an adversary like China. That sort of communications data could be even more useful if hackers could observe it in real time.The Trump campaign team was made aware this week that the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate were among a number of people inside and outside of government whose phone numbers had been targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems, the officials said.
We do not know if the hackers grabbed text messages or messages sent in encrypted channels.
The FBI and other officials already confirmed Iran hacked Trump’s campaign.
The DOJ charged three Iranians for the hack.
They started targeting Trump’s campaign around May 2024. However, the government admitted Iran started targeting Trump after his administration killed Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the IRGC Qods Force.
The FBI also said the hackers sent information they gained from Trump’s campaign to President Joe Biden’s campaign.
Politico, The New York Times, and The Washington Post received confidential information from the Iranian hackers.
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