Iranian hackers tried to send Trump leaks to Biden campaign

Date:

Share:


In late June and early July, Iranian hackers sent unsolicited emails to people associated with President Biden’s camp. Those emails contained excerpts from materials not available to the public that had been stolen from former President Trump’s campaign, according to a joint statement issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The feds clarified that there’s no evidence that those recipients replied to the sender. In addition, the bad actors sent stolen materials to news publications, including The Washington Post and Politico.

The Post reported in August that the FBI was investigating Iranian hackers’ attempt to infiltrate both Trump’s and Biden’s (now Kamala Harris’) campaigns using spear-phishing techniques. Feds didn’t find any evidence that anybody from the Democratic Party fell for their scheme. But the bad actors were reportedly able to take control of an email account owned by Roger Stone, a long-time Trump adviser, which they then used to send more emails with spear-phishing links to his contact list.

“As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible,” the authorities said in their announcement.

The stolen materials were sent from an AOL account through emails signed with the name “Robert,” according to The Post. When asked by the publication, they denied that they were connected to Iranian cyber attackers. While the feds didn’t say what materials were sent out, The Post says they include the Trump campaign’s research on Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, as well as internal poll results.

Trump’s camp is now calling for the Harris camp to disclose what materials it received, while asking news publications not to publish the stolen information. Harris spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said the Democratic campaign is cooperating with authorities, since some of their people were also targeted on their personal emails, but they’re “not aware of any material being sent” to them directly.

Microsoft previously found evidence that a group linked to the Iranian government created a website that throws attacks and insults at former President Trump. But Iran isn’t the only country that’s attempting to interfere with this year’s presidential election in the US. Microsoft recently reported that Kremlin-affiliated Russian troll farms are running disinformation campaigns focused on discrediting Harris and her running mate Tim Walz. These Russian troll farms have been releasing inauthentic videos showing the Democratic nominees in a bad light, including one that used a fake actor to accuse Harris of being involved in a 2011 hit-and-run incident that paralyzed a 13-year-old girl.



Source link

━ more like this

How to watch the Latin American Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest 2025

Summer Game Fest 2025 is just around the corner and it'll be a weekend packed with video game news. The event kicks off...

Research roundup: 7 stories we almost missed

Jazz lovers likely...

Meta will reportedly soon use AI for most product risk assessments instead of human reviewers

According to a report from , Meta plans to shift the task of assessing its products' potential harms away from human reviewers, instead...

How to watch the Women-Led Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest 2025

The Women-Led Games Showcase will be returning for its second year at the Summer Game Fest 2025. It will feature 39 titles from...
spot_img