The FBI has launched an investigation into alleged hacking by China after reports said the mobile phones of Donald Trump and JD Vance may have been compromised.

Chinese hackers targeted mobile phones used by the United States Republican presidential candidate and his running mate, as well as people associated with the campaign of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, The New York Times reported on Friday.

It said hackers had tapped into the network of mobile phone provider Verizon and investigators were working to determine if any communications were taken. The Associated Press news agency confirmed that people working on the Harris campaign were also targeted.

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)  released a statement saying the government was investigating “unauthorised access” to the country’s telecom infrastructure by “actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China”.

“Agencies across the US government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defences across the commercial communications sector,” said the two agencies.

They did not name the targets of the incident, but Verizon said it was aware of a sophisticated attempt to reportedly target US telecoms and gather intelligence.

The New York Times said the Trump campaign was made aware this week that the former president and Vance were among a number of people whose phone numbers were targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems.

It added that the Republican campaign did not confirm the former president and his running mate’s phones were targeted.

The Democratic campaign has not yet commented on the reports.

High alert

News that high-profile political candidates and their campaigns were targeted comes as US officials remain on high alert for foreign interference in the final stretch of the presidential campaign.

The Trump campaign was hacked earlier this year. The US Justice Department charged three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accusing them of trying to disrupt the November 5 election.

China, by contrast, is believed by US Intelligence officials to be taking a neutral stance in the race and is instead focused on more low-profile and local elections targeting candidates from both parties based on their stance on issues of importance to Beijing, such as support for Taiwan.