Hackers targeted phone data of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance

Weeks ago, an attack by suspected Chinese hackers on American telecommunications providers became known. Now it appears that prominent targets could be affected.

According to US media reports, Chinese hackers have targeted phone data belonging to Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance. The “New York Times” and the “Wall Street Journal” also reported that the campaign team of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was also targeted. It remained unclear in the reports whether the hackers with suspected links to the Chinese secret service were able to capture any data.

Data from mobile phone providers can be used, for example, to see who phoned whom, when and for how long, and with whom text messages were exchanged.

The FBI merely announced that unauthorized access to the telecommunications infrastructure of actors with links to China was being investigated. It had already been established weeks ago that a hacker group had broken into the systems of several American mobile phone providers.

Phones belonging to Trump and Vance were targeted by the hackers in the attack on the telecommunications group Verizon, wrote the New York Times. A Verizon spokesperson stated that the company was investigating reports of the attack and could not provide any further details in light of the ongoing investigation. A cyberattack on the internal communications of Trump and Vance’s election campaign team, which was attributed to hackers from Iran, had already come to light in the summer.

dpa