Donald Trump’s campaign claims that some of its internal communications have been hacked.
According to the campaign, the hack was orchestrated by “foreign sources hostile to the United States.” Specifically, the campaign blames Iranian hackers that “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign,” Politico reports.
“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Politico.
On Friday, Microsoft said it recently uncovered hackers allegedly from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sending a phishing email to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign. “The email contained a link that would direct traffic through a domain controlled by the group before routing to the website of the provided link,” Microsoft said. “Within days of this activity, the same group unsuccessfully attempted to log into an account belonging to a former presidential candidate. We’ve since notified those targeted.”
Cheung declined to tell Politico if the Trump campaign had spoken with Microsoft, though he said the timing of the Iranian hack “coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee.”
Politico says it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account sharing what appeared to be internal communications from within the Trump campaign, including a dossier on Senator JD Vance, Trump’s VP pick. The hacker used an AOL email address and asked to be referred to as simply “Robert.” The Washington Post says it got similar emails from “Robert.”
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Microsoft’s report also said Iran is secretly harnessing generative AI to publish fake news articles on polarizing topics to stir up US voters.
Hackers going after campaigns is nothing new. The Democratic National Committee was famously breached by Russian hackers ahead of the 2016 US election.
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