Chinese hackers have breached the phones of numerous US politicians and collected audio of their calls, the Washington Post has reported, citing sources.
An unnamed adviser to the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is claimed to be among those whose conversations were intercepted, the paper reported on Sunday.
According to the sources, the hackers belonged to a group dubbed ‘Salt Typhoon’ by US researchers. Washington believes it has links to China’s main spy agency, the Ministry of State Security.
The perpetrators were allegedly able to collect audio on a number of calls during a large-scale operation that lasted for months, according to the report.
At least one US official was notified late last week that his personal cellphone had been accessed by hackers, who were seeking his phone logs, text messages, and other data on the device, one of the sources stated.
The total number of victims of the breach is said to be less than a hundred, the Washington Post reported.
A former senior US cyber-operations official told the newspaper that the scale of the hack was limited because those behind it could have seen access to the phones of US politicians as “exquisite” or highly valuable, and acted cautiously in order to avoid detection for as long as possible.
The US government has launched an investigation into the breach and is trying to determine how much audio the hackers were able to obtain, the sources said. More victims could be uncovered as the probe continues, they added.
The FBI declined to comment when addressed on the issues by the paper.
The Washington Post stressed in its article that the alleged hack “heightens concerns over the extent of the infiltration” in the run-up to the US presidential election on November 5.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington previously said it was unaware of the activities of ‘Salt Typhoon’. It also accused the US of fabricating evidence of Chinese involvement in cyberattacks.
Beijing has repeatedly denied claims by Washington that it is trying to meddle in the US electoral process. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian insisted in July that “China has never interfered in and will not interfere in the US election.” According to the spokesman, the authorities in Beijing “oppose the US spreading false information to smear China.”