FBI Investigates Claims China Tried To Hack Donald Trump's Phone (ft.com) 43
Joe Biden's administration is investigating alleged Chinese efforts to hack US telecoms infrastructure amid reports hackers had targeted the phones of former president Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance. Financial Times: The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said they were investigating "unauthorised access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People's Republic of China."
The statement followed a report in the New York Times that Chinese hackers had accessed US telecoms networks and targeted data on Trump and Vance's phones. The FBI declined to say if the hackers had targeted their phones.
Steven Cheung, Trump's campaign spokesperson, blamed the alleged attack on Kamala Harris, the US vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee. But he declined to say if US authorities had informed the campaign about the hacking effort.
Cheung said: "This is the continuation of election interference by Kamala Harris and Democrats who will stop at nothing, including emboldening China and Iran attacking critical American infrastructure, to prevent president Trump from returning to the White House. Their dangerous and violent rhetoric has given permission to those who wish to harm president Trump." Further reading:
Chinese Hackers Targeted Trump and Vance's Phone Data (CNN);
China Sought To Hack Trump, Vance and Campaign Phones, Officials Say (Washington Post);
Chinese Hackers Targeted Phones of Trump, Vance, and Harris Campaign (Wall Street Journal);
US Investigating Breach of Telecoms by China-Linked Hackers (Bloomberg);
Trump, Vance Potential Targets in Broad China-Backed Hacking Operation (CBS News);
Chinese Hackers Attempted To Breach Trump, Vance Cellphone Data: Report (Fox News);
Chinese Hackers Believed To Have Targeted Trump, Vance Cellphones: Sources (ABC News);
Chinese Hackers Targeted Cellphones Used by Trump, Vance (Associated Press).
The statement followed a report in the New York Times that Chinese hackers had accessed US telecoms networks and targeted data on Trump and Vance's phones. The FBI declined to say if the hackers had targeted their phones.
Steven Cheung, Trump's campaign spokesperson, blamed the alleged attack on Kamala Harris, the US vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee. But he declined to say if US authorities had informed the campaign about the hacking effort.
Cheung said: "This is the continuation of election interference by Kamala Harris and Democrats who will stop at nothing, including emboldening China and Iran attacking critical American infrastructure, to prevent president Trump from returning to the White House. Their dangerous and violent rhetoric has given permission to those who wish to harm president Trump." Further reading:
Chinese Hackers Targeted Trump and Vance's Phone Data (CNN);
China Sought To Hack Trump, Vance and Campaign Phones, Officials Say (Washington Post);
Chinese Hackers Targeted Phones of Trump, Vance, and Harris Campaign (Wall Street Journal);
US Investigating Breach of Telecoms by China-Linked Hackers (Bloomberg);
Trump, Vance Potential Targets in Broad China-Backed Hacking Operation (CBS News);
Chinese Hackers Attempted To Breach Trump, Vance Cellphone Data: Report (Fox News);
Chinese Hackers Believed To Have Targeted Trump, Vance Cellphones: Sources (ABC News);
Chinese Hackers Targeted Cellphones Used by Trump, Vance (Associated Press).
Why would they? (Score:4, Insightful)
There is nothing of interest going to be on it. Trump does not know how to keep secrets.
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You left some things out there, but yep, pretty accurate. The US constitution never expected somebody of _this_ low quality to ever make it to the office of president though, so there are no provisions for it.
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The US Constitution was specifically designed to elect people of the lowest common denominator, in every role, including President. That's why government is always incompetent.
Re: Why would they? (Score:2)
Restricting the franchise to property-owning white men seems to be an odd way to go about that. Indirect election of Senators, the President, and Vice President, though, you're obviously right on that front.
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Property owning white men at the time were among the least competent. They were why 9 out of 10 indentured servants from Ireland *died* before they could achieve the terms of their contract.
The *singular* point for moving away from a monarchy is the incompetency of the aristocracy, but Orwell's Law is alive and strong. Any given revolution against a tyranny, will recreate the worst properties of that tyranny.
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"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."
- That rules out ambitious foreigners and non-adults. Their immediate concern was probably that the King would could install a puppet government in the US within a f
Re:Why would they? (Score:4, Interesting)
The founding fathers also assumed that only land owning males would vote or run for office. This wasn't lowest common denominator, they wanted the elites to be in office. These were also all living in the time of Enlightenment, where science and rationality were on the upswing and radical ideas like democracy were seriously considered. This means that they probably didn't consider the situation where society would embrace ignorance again.
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This means that they probably didn't consider the situation where society would embrace ignorance again.
Quite. And it really does not get much more ignorant than Trump.
Re: Why would they? (Score:2)
"I don't think they anticipated the oligarchy problem being just as bad as the monarchy problem at the time"
No, they just wanted to BE the oligarchy problem.
Remember this is a bunch of slave owning old white guys who didn't give the vote to anyone but other land owning white guys.
Re: Why would they? (Score:2)
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Indeed, the position of the presidency was designed from the start with the assumption that it would be occupied by a reasonable gentleman, with only a few minimal guardrails tacked on afterward. Biden should've put more effort into erecting significant guardrails around it that would contain a Trump-level trashy despot, or at least force one to knock them back down and thus clearly telegraph all the crooked fuckery they were about to commit. Maybe it's not too late to slap some more in place at the last se
Re:Why would they? (Score:5, Interesting)
Every four years it seems we relearn the lesson that the party in power will change, and that assumptions that the status quo will last forever are doomed to be wrong. Thus the power of the presidency grows, more congressional power is abdicated, and ocasionally a political nuclear option is considered before saner heads prevail. I suspect some of the problem here is that there was a sigh of relief that at least Trump was gone and that we can go back to an eternal sense of normalcy; but on the other hand the congress was also saddled with strong MAGA people intent on screwing things up or kicking their own leaders to the curb to ensure that nothing of consequence can be achieved.
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Indeed. Bute somebody like Trump does not understand "reasonable" or what a "gentleman" is. About the only good thing with Trump is his excessive incompetence.
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Effort better spent elsewhere? Why do you even have to ask?
if so, no biggie (Score:3)
The NSA helped the UK to breach EU infrastructure, from German and other govts to the backbones. That's just what they do to allies.
Imagine what they might do to competitors.
Sad state of govt actors, isn't it.
And yea, as for Trump.. if he'd know anything of relevance it'd be out in his socials soon enough.
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but... why? (Score:3)
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Wouldn't it be easier for Xi to just call Trump and ask directly. After all they're in good standing with one another, no?
Some respect maybe, but the YMCA double handjob dance is reserved for Putin and Kim.
Re:but... why? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm sure that there must be at last one campaign advisor who's told Trump that YMCA is a gay anthem, right? Or warn him about all the homoerotic stuff he's doing like talking about Arnold Palmer's manhood in such an admiring tone.
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It's not really homophobia to point out that invoking the gay community has traditionally not been a strong way to draw support from Republicans. "Publicly dancing to a song about gay sex!? There are children at this rally!". Typically it would be a vote loser for them.
As we've seen many times before his supporters don't seem to care what he does though.
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I've always viewed social progress in the US as happening in a two steps forward, one step back fashion. It feels like with Trump that we're currently in a "one step back" period.
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Trump is more like 3 or 4 steps backwards. He's for undoing generations of steps forward. If not undoing the democracy itself... or maybe a step forwards into the modern autocracy where voting is a total sham.
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Maybe he is personally but the LGBTQ community is still ahead of where they once were in the 80's and 90's despite our recent regressions. Likewise with issues of race. I mean, our country was barely even having conversations about race in the 90's at least until the Rodney King beating and the associated LA riots.
Basically, I see our country as still doing better on most social issues despite this Trump era regression. Abortion would probably be an exception of course although I wonder if access might stil
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Trump's bribe amounts have gone way up from the $20 million or so he got from the Egyptian government just before he was elected.
How? (Score:2)
I would think you'd need either the IMEI or phone number in order to even try to "target" (whatever that means) a specific phone. Otherwise, how would you do it?
Diary...phone of a madman (Score:1)
Harriss blamed (Score:2)
Trump's campaign spokesperson, blamed the alleged attack on Kamala Harris
Looks like he is preparing for the day after loosing the election.
Of course they tried he is the next president (Score:1)
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like it or not he will win come Nov
I hope the results are so close that it comes down to the vote of one man.
My choice, just for the lulz, would be Clarence Thomas.
Bullshit. Xi already knows what Putler knows. (Score:2)
Should be easy (Score:2)
password: 123456