British Prime Minister Burnham exchanged messages with a person posing as Trump's chief of staff - media
Kyiv • UNN
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom exchanged messages with a person posing as the chief of staff to the President of the United States. The UK Government refused to comment on the incident, citing national security.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with a person impersonating US President Donald Trump's chief of staff. Downing Street declined to comment on the security breach, first reported by Politico, UNN writes, citing the BBC.
Details
Politico reported that, according to officials, Burnham communicated with a person impersonating Susie Wiles "before suspecting that the contact was unlawful," and claimed that only "a few messages" had been exchanged.
A British government spokesperson said: "We do not comment on national security matters."
It is believed that the communication between Burnham and the person impersonating Wiles took place via messages, and that there was no conversation between them.
No "significant messages" were exchanged, and the relevant authorities were "quickly informed" about the text messages as soon as they came to be considered suspicious, sources said.
The BBC previously reported on an FBI investigation into the hacking of Wiles's phone in May last year.
At the time, Wiles said her phone had been hacked after an impersonator or impersonators used her contact information to send messages to other senior officials.
The target of the hack was her personal phone, not a government device, but the recipients included US senators, governors and executives of major companies.
Wiles, a key Trump ally, was also among those who fell victim to cyberespionage linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—an influential branch of Iran's armed forces—in 2024.