'Gold mine': Bombshell report claims Chinese hack hits phones used by Trump and Vance

Chinese hackers penetrated into U.S. telecommunications networks and targeted phones used by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, reported The New York Times on Friday.

Investigators are currently trying to "determine what communications data, if any, was taken or observed by the sophisticated penetration of telecom systems, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an active and highly sensitive national security case."

Such data, the report continued, could be a "gold mine" for hostile foreign intelligence services, as they could determine who Trump is in communication with and exploit his vulnerabilities, particularly if he ends up becoming president again.

Trump's campaign was alerted this week "that the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate were among a number of people inside and outside of government whose phone numbers had been targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems," according to sources speaking to The Times.

This is not the first such security threat that has targeted Trump. Earlier this year, Iranian hackers posed as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife in order to gain inside access to campaign information.

Infamously, these kinds of schemes have disrupted U.S. elections for years; in 2016, Russian intelligence sought to interfere in the election, hacking and releasing information from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, while using troll farms to promote disinformation online. Former special counsel Robert Mueller's report indicated that Trump was aware of this and enthusiastic that it would be to his benefit.