The phones of people associated with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign were targeted by Chinese hackers who accessed the systems of US broadband provider Verizon, a person familiar with the situation said Friday.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance were also targeted by hackers, according to media reports that Reuters could not confirm.
The New York Times reported that investigators are trying to determine what information was stolen from Trump and Vance.
The Wall Street Journal reported in early October that Chinese hackers accessed the networks of American broadband service providers and obtained information from systems used by the federal government for court-authorized wiretapping.
Trump’s campaign staff was notified this week that Trump and Vance were among people inside and outside government whose phone numbers were targeted by hackers after the infiltration of Verizon’s phone system, the Times added.
The Trump campaign has not confirmed that Trump’s and Vance’s phones were targeted. Steven Cheung, the campaign’s communications director, said Vice President Harris encouraged China and Iran to attack US infrastructure to prevent Trump from returning to the White House.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did campaign manager Harris.
The Trump campaign was hacked earlier this year. The US Department of Justice blamed three members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard for the attack, accusing them of trying to disrupt the November 5 presidential election.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said on Friday they were investigating unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure gained by individuals linked to China. The joint statement of the two services did not name the targets in the incident.
Verizon has announced that it is aware of a sophisticated attempt to access US telecommunications and collect data.
The largest American telecommunications company added that it is cooperating with the police.