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Donald Trump’s presidential campaign team has confirmed their systems have been penetrated, with some internal communications illegally obtained by foreign agents.
Following a Microsoft report that detailed how a “high-ranking official on the presidential campaign trail” had been targeted, Trump’s team has linked this back to Iran.
News outlet Politico reported it had received a collection of documents from an anonymous AOL email account that only identified as Robert. The details included research on Ohio Senator JD Vance, now Trump’s running mate, and his previous critical remarks about the 45th President of the United States.
Trump also acknowledged the hacking incident on his Truth Social platform but played down its impact, stating that the perpetrators only emerged with “publicly available information.”
The method of attack has been conveyed as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sending a spear-phishing email to the “high-ranking official” via the compromised account of a former senior adviser. The email is said to have contained a link to divert traffic through a domain operated by the hackers before redirecting it to the intended, legitimate website.
Foreign actors have increased since 2016
The Microsoft Threat Analysis Center report outlined its findings with the conclusion that Iranian operatives are determined to influence the U.S. presidential election in November. Some of the tactics deployed by the threat actors include setting up fake news websites and supposedly delivering local-based insights and updates. The efforts are targeted at both sides of the political spectrum, but in swing states, there could be consequences sown by disinformation.
Microsoft’s research indicates that the frequency of covert operations from foreign sources has increased since the 2016 election, which was the backdrop for the last high-profile cyber attack.
On that occasion, Russian hackers are believed to have been responsible for the leak of internal cables from the Democratic National Committee.
