By james art An FBI statement did not confirm that Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance were among the potential targets, but said it was investigating “unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors associated with the People’s Republic of China.”
“Agencies across the U.S. government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defenses in the commercial communications sector,” the FBI said.
US officials believe the Republican couple are among several people whose phone numbers have been hacked, and suspect it is part of a larger cyberespionage campaign launched by China.
The New York Times first reported that Mr Trump and Mr Vance had been targeted and said the campaign had been alerted by US officials this week.
The FBI has repeatedly warned over the past year about Chinese hacking operations, with FBI Director Chris Wray telling Congress in January that investigators had dismantled a state-sponsored group known as Volt Typhoon.
This operation targeted US-based small office and home routers owned by individuals and companies. Their ultimate targets include wastewater treatment plants, the power grid, and the U.S. transportation systems.
Last month, Mr. Wray said the FBI had broken up a separate Chinese government campaign targeting universities, government agencies and other organizations that had installed malware on more than 200,000 consumer devices, including cameras, video recorders and home and office routers.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington said they were not aware of the specifics and could not comment, but maintained that China routinely falls victim to cyberattacks and opposes the activity.
“Presidential elections are the internal affairs of the United States. China has no intention and will not interfere in US elections. We hope the US side will not make accusations against China in the election,” the statement said.
Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Cheng did not offer any details about the Chinese operation, but issued a statement accusing the Harris campaign of encouraging foreign adversaries, including China and Iran.
The Wall Street Journal reported this month that Chinese hackers penetrated the networks of US broadband providers and potentially accessed systems that law enforcement officials use for wiretapping requests.