Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance said on Oct. 31 that his phone was hacked by Chinese entities.
Speaking during an episode of the “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Vance said that Chinese hackers breached his cellphone but that most of his messages were encrypted using third-party apps such as Signal.
“I don’t think that they got really anything. We’ll find out. Apparently, they couldn’t get the encrypted messages that were sent,” Vance said.
The confirmation was made less than a week after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published a joint statement acknowledging an investigation into “the unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure.”
The statement said the agencies “immediately notified affected companies, rendered technical assistance, and rapidly shared information to assist other potential victims.”
Vance claimed that the China-based hackers were able to breach his phone using back-end infrastructure originally created to accommodate the Patriot Act and FISA Section 702.
Vance also said that he believes former President Donald Trump’s phone was hacked by China-based actors.
He said that authorities informed him that the breach was part of a larger Chinese effort, dubbed “Salt Typhoon,” which has aimed to infiltrate and exploit U.S. infrastructure.
A similarly named Volt Typhoon also exists. That effort is associated with a Chinese hacking group that successfully infiltrated thousands of U.S. systems including critical infrastructure such as water and air traffic control systems.
Information about the hacking effort was brought to light amid a closely contested presidential race that has been marred by frequent foreign interference by cyber groups in China, Russia, and Iran. It is the second known hack of the Trump campaign following an Iranian phishing attack in August. In that effort, hackers backed by Tehran infiltrated a member of the campaign’s accounts and leaked the information to the press and the Biden administration.
“We do have a real problem,” Vance said.
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