Chinese hackers who are believed to have burrowed deep into American communications networks targeted data from phones used by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, people familiar with the matter said Friday.

Investigators are working to determine what communications data, if any, was taken or observed by the sophisticated penetration of telecom systems, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an active and highly sensitive national security case.

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The type of information on phones used by a presidential candidate and his running mate could be a gold mine for an intelligence agency: Who they called and texted, how often they communicated with certain people, and how long they talked to those people could be highly valuable to an adversary like China. That sort of communications data could be even more useful if hackers could observe it in real time.

The Trump campaign team was made aware this week that the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate were among a number of people inside and outside of government whose phone numbers had been targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems, the officials said.

It was unclear whether the hackers could have gained access to text messages, especially those sent through unencrypted channels.

Data about the communications of a presidential and vice presidential candidate — even absent the content of the calls and messages — could also help an adversary like China better identify and target people in Trump’s inner circle for influence operations.

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Trump’s Campaign Also Attacked by Iranian Hackers

The revelation came in the closing stages of a campaign in which Trump’s team has also been targeted by Iranian hackers, who have repeatedly targeted his inner circle with spearphishing emails that were at least partly successful in gaining access to his campaign’s communications and documents.

Security around Trump has also been tightened as a result of assassination threats from Iran.

A Trump campaign spokesperson did not directly address whether the phones used by Trump and Vance had been targeted. But in a statement, the spokesperson, Steven Cheung, criticized the White House and Vice President Kamala Harris and sought to blame them for allowing a foreign adversary to target the campaign.

Earlier this year, security officials discovered the presence in American telecommunications systems of a China-affiliated hacking group called Salt Typhoon by Western cybersecurity experts. But investigators determined only recently that the hackers were targeting specific phone numbers, the officials said.

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The infiltration by the hackers extends beyond the 2024 political campaign, with multiple people said to be targeted, people familiar with the investigation said, suggesting it could have far-reaching national security implications.

The investigation into the extent of the hacking and any national security damage is in its early stages. Whether such an attack could monitor or record phone conversations is difficult to know, and whether the hackers could read or intercept texts, for example, would depend in no small part on which messaging apps the targets used and how that data moved over the phone company’s systems.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that a cyberattack linked to the Chinese government had infiltrated some U.S. broadband providers’ networks and might have been able to get information from systems used by the federal government in FISA court wiretap efforts.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Devlin Barrett, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman/Eric Lee
c. 2024 The New York Times Company