AP sources: Chinese hackers targeted cellphones used by Trump, Vance

Chinese hackers targeted cellphones utilized by Republican statesmanlike nominee Donald Trump and his moving mate, J

WASHINGTON -- Chinese hackers targeted cellphones utilized by Republican statesmanlike nominee Donald Trump and his moving mate, J.D. Vance, 2 group acquainted pinch nan matter said Friday.

It was not instantly clear what information if immoderate whitethorn person been taken, but U.S. officials are investigating, according to nan people, who were not authorized to publically talk an ongoing investigation and said connected nan information of anonymity to The Associated Press.

An FBI connection did not corroborate that Trump and Vance were among nan imaginable targets but said it was investigating “unauthorized entree to commercialized telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated pinch nan People’s Republic of China.”

“Agencies crossed nan U.S. Government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating pinch our manufacture partners to fortify cyber defenses crossed nan commercialized communications sector,” nan FBI said.

U.S. officials judge Trump and Vance are among respective group whose telephone numbers are believed to person been targeted and fishy it to beryllium portion of a larger cyber-espionage run launched by China, nan personification said.

The New York Times first reported that Trump and Pence had been targeted and said nan run was alerted by U.S. officials this week.

Trump run spokesperson Steven Cheung did not connection immoderate specifications astir nan Chinese cognition but issued a connection accusing nan run of Democrat Kamala Harris of having emboldened overseas adversaries, including China and Iran.

The FBI has many times warned complete nan past twelvemonth astir Chinese hacking operations, with FBI Director Chris Wray telling Congress successful January that investigators had disrupted a state-sponsored group known arsenic Volt Typhoon. That cognition targeted U.S.-based mini agency and location routers owned by backstage citizens and companies. Their eventual targets included h2o curen plants, nan electrical grid and proscription systems crossed nan U.S.

Last month, Wray said that nan FBI had interrupted a abstracted Chinese authorities campaign that targeted universities, authorities agencies and different organizations and that installed malicious package connected much than 200,000 user devices, including cameras, video recorders and location and agency routers.

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Michelle L. Price successful New York contributed to this report.