JUST IN: Trump And Vance’s Phones Allegedly Hacked By Chinese Ahead of Election
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Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was informed this week that Chinese hackers may have gained access to phones used by the former president and his running mate JD Vance.
According to The New York Times, Chinese hackers are believed to have gained access to data from phones used by the Republican candidates. However, investigators are still trying to determine what data was stolen or examined by the hackers following the telecom system breach.
Per the NYT, the information stored on Trump’s phone could be useful for the hackers especially if they were able to view the data in real-time:
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.
However, it is not known at this time if the hackers gained access to text messages sent by Trump or Vance via unencrypted channels. The NYT notes that access to Trump’s data could also allow an adversary like China to identify those close to the former president for a potential influence operation.
In a statement to The Times, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung did not confirm whether Trump’s phone had been hacked but did slam the Biden administration for allowing a foreign adversary to target the former president.
Previously, Trump’s team had been targeted by Iran via spearphishing emails sent to members of his inner circle, allowing the hackers to gain access to the campaign’s internal communications and documents.
