As the US election day approaches, overseas media have been reporting that hackers supported by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are launching more cyber attacks on US political figures, including presidential candidates’ campaign teams, to steal their communication texts, phone audio, and more.
According to The Washington Post on Sunday (October 27), citing three sources, CCP hackers have stolen phone audio of US political figures, including an unnamed campaign advisor to Republican presidential candidate Trump. This is the latest news regarding CCP hackers’ attempts to influence the US election.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency stated last Friday (October 25) that they are investigating unauthorized intrusions of commercial telecommunications infrastructure by hacker groups related to the CCP.
This hacker group, reportedly named “Salt Typhoon” by US investigators, conducted a large-scale espionage operation months ago, stealing multiple phone audio recordings. As the investigation is ongoing, sources requested anonymity.
Government officials are still trying to determine the extent of the audio recordings obtained by the hacker group. Currently, the number of confirmed victims is relatively small, less than 100 people, but more victims may emerge as the investigation continues.
Furthermore, these hackers have been able to access unencrypted communications, including text messages. However, it is claimed that communication platforms like Signal with end-to-end encryption have not been compromised.
Steven Cheung, news director for Trump’s campaign team, condemned the interference in the presidential election in a statement to English Epoch Times. He accused it as a continuation of Vice President Harris and the Democrats’ interference in elections and blamed them for allowing CCP and Iran to attack critical US infrastructure to prevent Trump from returning to the White House. However, no evidence was provided in the statement.
Apart from Trump and Pence’s phones being targeted in the recent CCP-related attacks, “people associated with Harris and the Democratic Party campaign activities” have also become targets of CCP attacks, according to the Associated Press.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington stated last week that they are not aware of the specific situation regarding these attacks.
The Biden administration recently established a multi-agency task force to counter the increasingly aggressive cyber attacks on US telecommunications companies by the CCP. It is believed that CCP’s actions are aimed at intelligence gathering.
According to reports from Reuters, the CCP’s actions are expected to continue even after the election, until the presidential inauguration day, as per a memo decrypted by the National Intelligence Council. These hostile forces may consider inciting unrest and conducting localized cyber operations to disrupt election infrastructure.
However, the memo notes that actions targeting formal vote counting or the election process itself are less likely due to the high difficulty and potential US retaliation.