Chinese hackers tried to gain access to data on the phones of former President Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance, as well as those belonging to people associated with the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Cybersecurity experts say if the hackers were successful, the potential repercussions could be massive.
According to the Times, Trump and his associates were told this week that Chinese hackers had targeted their phone numbers after infiltrating Verizon’s telecommunications infrastructure.
“It’s an incredibly big deal,” said Chris Pierson, CEO of BlackCloak and a former cybersecurity adviser to the Department of Homeland Security. “If this is a nation state that has compromised a phone carrier and is trying to ascertain information about the campaigns, about the candidates and their inner circle, that’s of the highest level importance.”
Investigators are still trying to gauge the extent of the …