The latest hacks appear to have targeted influential people and collected data that could benefit the Chinese government.
Among others, they targeted the phones of President-elect Donald Trump, Vice-President-elect J.D. Vance, and people working for Vice-President Kamala Harris’ campaign.
The hackers also gained access to a database of phone numbers subject to wiretapping by law enforcement — knowledge that experts say could be used to identify foreign spies under surveillance.
And the data of millions of Americans could have been compromised as a result of attacks on telecommunications companies.
Richard Forna, assistant director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Cybersecurity Institute, said Chinese efforts were aimed at different targets.
“It’s more of a general gathering of information, let’s see what we can dig into and see what we can find,” he said.
