China hacked the devices of Donald Trump’s family ahead of the election, authorities believe.

An investigation was launched two weeks ago into how China-linked hackers accessed communications data from the personal phones of Trump and JD Vance, The New York Times reported.

Now, the scope of the investigation has been widened after it emerged that the former president’s son, Eric Trump, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, were also targeted.

If China has obtained such details, it would give its spies an insight into whom to target as part of any influence campaign.

Sources told The New York Times that fewer than 100 individuals have been targeted in the sophisticated hacking operation, which broke into telecommunications company systems.

The list includes members of Kamala Harris’s campaign staff, as well as diplomatic, government and policy experts. An aide to Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, was also targeted.

FBI investigators believe there is evidence that audio communications have been hacked, and that the group may have been able to access unencrypted text messages and call logs on certain devices, sources told the paper.

Eric Trump blamed the security breach on President Biden’s administration. “Does this surprise anyone? Under Kamala and Biden, China has walked all over our country,” he told the NY Times.

His comments echoed those of a Trump campaign spokesman last week, who said the Democrats would “stop at nothing…to prevent Trump entering the White House”.

The Trump campaign was made aware at the time that the Verizon phone network had been infiltrated, leading to the potential exposure of personal data linked to the former president, his running mate, as well as a number of people inside and outside of the US government.

US authorities have blamed the targeted security breach on “actors affiliated with” the Chinese government, with Western cybersecurity experts claiming a group called Salt Typhoon is behind it.

The group has a history of carrying out sophisticated cyberoperations on behalf of Chinese intelligence and was blamed by US security officials for accessing the country’s telecommunications system earlier this year.

Investigators more recently discovered they were targeting specific cell phone numbers.

It is not known whether the Chinese hackers were able to read text messages, especially those sent through encrypted messaging services.

Trump’s campaign has not directly addressed the reported hacks against the presidential nominee and his running mate.

Last modified: October 30, 2024