US probes effort to impersonate White House Chief of Staff

U.S. federal authorities are investigating an effort to impersonate White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report said Wiles had told associates that some of her cellphone contacts had been hacked, allowing the impersonator to access private phone numbers.

The incident affected her personal phone, not her government phone, the report said.

The Journal reported that in recent weeks, senators, governors, top U.S. business executives and other figures received messages and calls from a person who claimed to be Wiles, citing the people familiar with the messages.

The White House and FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The White House has struggled with information security. A hacker who breached the communications service used by former Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz earlier this month intercepted messages from a broad swathe of American officials, Reuters reported recently.

And late last year, a White House official said the U.S. believed that an alleged sweeping Chinese cyber espionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon targeted and recorded telephone calls of "very senior" American political figures.