Microsoft confirmed an Iranian hacking group sent a spear-phishing email ‘to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign.’
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Former President Donald Trump confirmed his campaign was hacked just hours after Politico revealed it had been sent internal documents from the campaign. In a statement to CNN, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election.”
The Trump campaign linked the hack to Iran, citing a report published by Microsoft last week that says a group run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign.” The email, which was sent using the compromised account of a former senior adviser, contained a link that routed traffic through a domain controlled by the hacking group before redirecting to the actual website. However — per its usual practice — Microsoft doesn’t mention the names of those targeted by the attack.
On Saturday, Politico said it received an anonymous email containing internal research with public information on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, along with research on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who Trump also considered adding to his ticket. Trump confirmed the hack in a post on Truth Social, saying that hackers only obtained “publicly available information.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied the country’s involvement in the hack. It told The Associated Press, “The Iranian government neither possesses nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election.”
The last high-profile cyberattack to hit a US presidential election took place in 2016, when Russian hackers leaked a trove of internal emails from the Democratic National Committee. At the time, Trump encouraged hackers to find and leak the emails belonging to his opponent, Hillary Clinton. In 2020, reports also suggested Russian hackers were targeting the presidential election, while Iran and China were making similar hacking attempts.
