Donald Trump and JD Vance’s phones have been hacked by China ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
Investigators are looking into whether the hackers managed to access communications data from their personal cellphones, The New York Times reported on Friday.
A spokesman for the Trump camp suggested the Democrats were to blame for the hack, and that they would “stop at nothing…to prevent Trump entering the White House”.
Information on who the Republican candidate, and his running mate, have communicated with ahead of the election could provide Beijing with valuable intelligence.
If China has obtained such details, it would give its spies an insight into whom to target as part of any influence campaign.
Officials said the Trump campaign was made aware of infiltration into the Verizon phone network.
The hack also targeted a number of people inside and outside of the US government.
Trump has been targeted by a number of malign foreign activities before, including an assassination threat and influence campaign from Iran.
Iranian hackers have repeatedly targeted Trump’s inner circle with phishing emails to get access to secret campaign documents and communications.
The Iranian-hacker group, known as Mint Sandstorm or APT42, allegedly stole documents from members of the Trump campaign, Reuters reported on Friday.
The hackers had tried but failed to share the material through mainstream media outlets, but have more recently turned to using alternative means.
In recent weeks, the some of the documents were shared by the Muckrakers political action committee run by David Wheeler, the Democrat political operative.
Foreign adversary
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.
But a spokesman for the former president did blame the White House for allowing a foreign adversary to target the election campaign.
Earlier this year, security officials detected a Chinese-affiliated hacking group, Salt Typhoon, inside the country’s telecommunications system.
Investigators more recently discovered they were targeting specific cell phone numbers.
In 2016, Russia hacked and released information from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Trump had urged Russia to hack his Democratic rival at the time, asking the rogue state to find “the 30,000 emails that are missing” from Ms Clinton’s private email server during her time as the US secretary of state.
It is not yet known whether the most recent hack has culminated in a genuine national security threat.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said: “This is the continuation of election interference by Kamala Harris and Democrats who will stop at nothing, including emboldening China and Iran attacking critical American infrastructure, to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House. Their dangerous and violent rhetoric has given permission to those who wish to harm President Trump.
“They have now stood by and allowed major foreign adversaries to attack us in order to illegally help Kamala because they know she represents a weak American who will always bow down. Whereas, President Trump will actually stand up against our enemies and defend the United States from any and all aggression.”