US authorities say Chinese hackers stole data from telecom companies

Last month, Reuters reported that hackers backed by China had managed to infiltrate telecommunications systems in the US to target phones linked to people running the electoral campaign for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. 

Republican presidential and vice president candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance were also targeted in the breach. 

Now, the US authorities have confirmed the hack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have released a joint statement saying, "We have identified that PRC-affiliated actors have compromised networks at multiple telecommunications companies to enable the theft of customer call records data, the compromise of private communications of a limited number of individuals who are primarily involved in government or political activity, and the copying of certain information that was subject to US law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders."

The brief statement did not clarify which government agencies or professionals were targeted. Still, it states this was a "significant cyber espionage campaign." The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that Chinese hackers had acquired classified information from systems used for court-authorized wiretapping.