China hack targeted senior congressional Democrats
Chinese hackers also targeted cell phones belonging to senior Democratic officials in addition to former President Trump, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and people in the Harris campaign, The Associated Press reported on Friday.
NewsNation confirmed on Friday, per a Democratic source briefed, that the Chinese hack targeted prominent Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) staff.
AP said that it's not clear what data, if any, was accessed, and that U.S. officials are continuing to investigate the situation.
U.S. officials also said that the "the campaigns were among numerous targets of a larger cyberespionage operation launched by China," per AP.
The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday said they were investigating alleged hacks by Chinese-affiliated actors amid media reports that Vance and Trump had been targeted.
The FBI and CISA, in a joint statement released Friday morning, said they are looking into the “unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure” by actors affiliated with 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 across the commercial communications sector,” the FBI said.
The hack comes as federal agencies have repeatedly warned that China, Russia and Iran are among the foreign adversaries ramping up efforts to meddle with the 2024 election.
Microsoft released a report earlier this week showing that Chinese influence operations targeted a handful of Republican candidates and congressional members who “advocate for anti-Chinese policies.”
Iran is accused of spearheading a separate hack of the Trump campaign last summer and attempting to share the information with President Biden’s campaign.
NewsNation is owned by Nexstar, which also owns The Hill.