US Investigating Breach of Telecoms by China-Linked Hackers

The US government said Friday it was investigating unauthorized access by Chinese state-affiliated hackers targeting the commercial telecommunications sector.

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said they had identified specific malicious activity by actors affiliated with the Chinese government, and immediately notified the affected companies, “rendered technical assistance and rapidly shared information to assist other potential victims,” the agencies said in a joint statement.

The announcement on Friday came after The New York Times reported that Chinese hackers who had burrowed into American communications networks had targeted data from phones used by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio.

People affiliated with the Harris-Walz campaign were also targeted, according to a person familiar with the matter

In their statement, the agencies didn’t mention the alleged targeting of Trump, Vance or other campaigns, nor did they identify the companies involved.

Trump’s campaign didn’t confirm the Times report, including whether Chinese hackers gained access to phones used by the former president or Vance. In a statement, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung accused the Biden-Harris administration of failing to keep foreign adversaries from targeting US critical infrastructure.

A representative for the Harris campaign declined to comment.

The investigation was ongoing, the FBI and CISA said, adding that agencies across government were working “to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector.”

The Trump campaign team was informed that the former president and his running mate were among a number of people whose phone numbers had been targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems, according to the newspaper. A company spokesperson told the Times that it’s assisting the government’s investigation.

In a related matter, Canada’s leading cybersecurity agency said on Friday that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had been performing “broad-based reconnaissance scanning over several months” against targets including government agencies, political parties and both houses of Parliament, in addition to the defense sector and critical infrastructure. The scanning wasn’t an indication of compromise of those networks, according to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.

“It is the equivalent of someone walking around a building to see if there is an alarm or security camera, or trying the windows and doors to see which ones are unlocked,” the Canadian agency said.

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