DIGITAL LIFE
According to information from US authorities released this Friday (25), hackers working for the Chinese government reportedly tried to hack into cell phones used by former president and presidential candidate Donald Trump, senator and vice presidential candidate JD Vance and others working on the campaign, as well as those of members of the campaign of current vice president and candidate Kamala Harris.
It is not known for sure whether the hacking attempts were successful, but authorities claim that the cell phones of employees of both campaigns were compromised, reports The Washington Post.
It was not reported whether the cell phones of Harris and Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz were targeted. It is known, however, that other Democrats were targeted, such as the team of Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer.
How the US discovered the hacking attack on Trump and Harris' campaigns
The Trump campaign was notified by the FBI last week after telecommunications company Verizon discovered the unauthorized access attempt;
Authorities are still working to get a complete list of people affected, but as a precaution, everyone who works on the former president's campaign is receiving new phones;
According to a Trump aide, some people have started using encrypted devices even for basic calls;
Trump aides received information from the FBI that the criminals were also targeting members of the media and other important Americans. "They made it very clear that it wasn't just us," said one of the sources;
At least two other members of the Trump family were also targeted by the hackers.
Also according to the authorities, the Chinese effort is seen as "bipartisan" for now, that is, trying to attack both campaigns. This is because there were also attempts to hack into President Joe Biden's communications.
Since spying on candidates and political leaders is a common practice among major world powers, US authorities do not consider the attempted hacking of the Trump and Harris campaigns to be electoral intervention.
A senior US government official stated that, within the top echelons, “we are at level ten, flashing red to China right now.”
These attacks are a kind of continuation of a deep intrusion already reported in US telecommunications providers. The situation was caused by Chinese hackers dubbed Salt Typhoon by Microsoft. Sources indicate that this same group used the breach from the previous attack to try to hack into the phones of the Trump campaign.
The past situation led the White House to create a special team to respond to the issue. The Post previously indicated that the hackers had hacked up to a dozen companies, such as AT&T and Verizon, and in some of them, the criminals obtained the same access permission as senior engineers, so that they were able to exploit accounts and redirect customer traffic.
According to US authorities, the Salt Typhoon was connected to China's Ministry of State Security, the main local espionage agency.
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