Brussels Signal reported weeks ago, now FBI confirms, Chinese eavesdropped on candidates

On October 17, Brussels Signal reported on a Chinese security breach of major US telecommunications networks. Last week the FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) not only confirmed the attacks but also said they have uncovered a wide-reaching operation involving eavesdropping on the presidential candidates.

“The U.S. government’s continued investigation into the People’s Republic of China (PRC) targeting of commercial telecommunications infrastructure has revealed a broad and significant cyber espionage campaign,” said the FBI and CISA in a joint statement.

It used to be a suspicion. Now it is a fact. US authorities have positively and openly identified Chinese-affiliated hackers infiltrating the networks of major US telecommunications companies. They also admit that the intruders have gained access to a vast amount of sensitive data.

What the agencies have found out is that the cyberattack on US telecommunications companies, which initially appeared to be targeting campaigns ahead of the US presidential election, turns out to be much more extensive. According to the Voice of America, this is nothing less than an effort by China to conduct widespread surveillance on the United States.

What is more, the Chinese hackers appear to have acquired information that was requested by US legal authorities through court orders. The American security agencies’ statement is quite blunt on this point, clearly naming the Chinese state as responsible for the attacks.

“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 U.S. law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders,” stated the FBI and CISA.

“We expect our understanding of these compromises to grow as the investigation continues. We encourage any organization that believes it might be a victim to engage with its local FBI field office or CISA,” the FBI and CISA added.

The US authorities first officially acknowledged the problem on October 26, a few days before the US election, when in another joint communique the FBI and CISA referred to “unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China.”

That first FBI-CISA announcement came out after a New York Times report revealed that Chinese hackers had targeted the Trump campaign, including phones used by Donald Trump and JD Vance themselves. According to the Voice of America, people connected to Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign were also targeted.

As expected, the PRC’s reaction to the news had little to do with the price of tea in China. The spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Washington Liu Pengyu dismissed the latest US statements as “smear attacks against China without any factual basis”.

“We hope that relevant parties will adopt a professional and responsible attitude when characterizing cyber incidents, basing their conclusions on sufficient evidence rather than unfounded speculation and accusations,” the Chinese side concluded.

What is particularly worrying is that in the beginning of 2024 US intelligence agencies had already been alerted to the fact that foreign foes were actively trying to interfere with the US presidential election.

Not only is it common knowledge that China is employing a mix of cyberattacks and influence operations against the US, and the West as a whole. But as early as in February 2024 CISA Director Jen Easterly had stated that what the agency had found until then was “likely the tip of the iceberg”.

So the iceberg was there, US security agencies knew of its existence, they could even see its tip, but they still crashed into it. Yet another win for the illiberal Beijing regime. Hopefully, under the Trump administration, the United States will get its act together, focus on real threats and handle them properly.