Hacker attack on Donald Trump's election campaign: What we know

According to a report by Politico, former President Donald Trump's campaign team reported a breach of internal communications on Saturday.

The incident has raised concerns about possible foreign interference in the 2024 presidential election campaign and the vulnerability of campaign infrastructure to cyberattacks.

The Trump campaign's admission of the hacking followed requests from Politico, which had begun receiving emails from an anonymous source that appeared to contain authentic internal campaign documents.

Newsweek Trump's campaign team asked for comment via email on Saturday.

The hack: What we know

According to the Trump campaign, the data breach involved the theft of internal communications and documents. The campaign has pointed the finger at “foreign sources hostile to the United States” and suspected a state-sponsored attack. However, the exact nature and extent of the compromised information remains unclear.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, told Politico: “These documents were illegally obtained from foreign sources hostile to the United States. They were intended to influence the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our democratic process.” Cheung was referring to a recent Microsoft report that identified Iranian hackers as targeting a “senior official” in a June 2024 U.S. presidential campaign.

Microsoft did not specify which campaign was involved in its report and declined to comment further on the matter. Politico has not independently verified the identity of the hackers or their motive.

Microsoft report: wider impact

According to the Microsoft report released on Thursday, Iran-backed hackers targeted a senior official of an unidentified U.S. presidential campaign in a spear phishing attack in June. The report also highlights that several Iranian groups have launched aggressive disinformation and hacking campaigns to influence the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

The June attack was identified as being carried out by a group called Mint Sandstorm, run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence agency. The hackers used a compromised email account belonging to a former senior campaign adviser and sent an email with a link that redirected to a “domain controlled by the actor.”

Interestingly, the same group attempted to log into a former presidential candidate's account just days before the phishing attack on an ongoing presidential campaign. However, Microsoft noted that it does not yet have enough evidence to conclusively determine whether the activity is specifically motivated by the 2024 election, as this group regularly targets high-level political officials.

The Iran connection?

The Trump campaign has suggested that Iran could be behind the attack, citing the Microsoft report and recent intelligence on possible Iranian plans against the former president. Cheung told Politico: “The Iranians know that President Trump will put an end to their reign of terror, just as he did in his first four years in the White House.”

Furthermore, Iran has not been confirmed as the perpetrator of the attack by any independent source. Neither Microsoft, Politico nor US intelligence agencies have confirmed Iran's involvement in this specific incident. Nor has the Trump campaign provided any further evidence to support its claim of Iranian involvement.

US intelligence agencies recently concluded that Iran is using covert influence to undermine the Trump campaign. This fits with the overall picture painted by the Microsoft report, which suggests that Iran – along with Russia and China – will become increasingly aggressive in targeting the US election.

Cybersecurity landscape

The Microsoft report reveals that Iran's cyber activities extend beyond federal agencies and political campaigns. In May, another Iranian group, known as Peach Sandstorm, or APT33, managed to compromise the account of a county government employee in a swing state using a simple password-spraying attack.

Several Iranian groups have begun spreading fake news aimed at U.S. voters on both sides of the political spectrum. Some of these stories appear to use AI-powered services to plagiarize from U.S. publications, thereby making them more credible.

The FBI said Newsweek They are aware of the reporting but have no further comment.

Christopher Krebs, the country's former top election security official who was fired by Trump in 2020 for rejecting unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, weighed in on the matter.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Krebs wrote: “Buckle up. Confirmed hack and leak of confidential Trump campaign documents. Initial campaign response points to foreign sources, consistent with Microsoft's warning last week and @ODNIgov's warning the week before. Someone is playing the 2016 script, expect more attempts to stoke society's fires and attack voting systems – 95% of paper votes combined with audits is a powerful resistance measure. But the chaos is the point…”

The “2016 Playbook” alludes to memories of the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which had a significant impact on that year’s presidential election.

outlook

The reported hacking of the Trump campaign underscores the continued vulnerability of political campaigns to cyberattacks and raises questions about the extent to which campaigns are prepared to defend themselves against such threats.

Both political campaigns and voters are urged to remain cautious online and practice careful cybersecurity.