Trump Campaign Reports Hack of Internal Communications

Donald Trump’s campaign shared a statement this weekend announcing that their internal communications have been hacked and suggested a malicious attack from Iran.

According to Forbes, the news website Politico reported that it had been receiving emails with documents including a 271-page research Trump campaign had done on Senator JD Vance. The emails with the internal communications began in July, signed by “Robert”, with an anonymous AOL email account.

The user Robert claimed to have more documents including Trump’s legal court documents and other sensitive information. Politico said they have reached out to people familiar with the case and have confirmed the authenticity of the information shared.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign communications director, declared that the information had been obtained illegally.

A spokesman told the BBC that the attack came from “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” while Iranian officials have said publicly that they are not related to the hack.

However, Cheung also mentioned a report shared by Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) on August 9 mentioning that Iranian hackers have targeted the U.S. campaign through a phishing email. In the report, it is mentioned that the Islamic group Mint Sandstorm “sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.”

Microsoft has not confirmed if the attack was addressed to Trump’s campaign, but the document acknowledges that Iranian threats have been targeting U.S. campaigns for the past three election cycles in the United States.

Cheung has also mentioned that the hacking had the clear intention to “interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process.”

During the current presidential campaigns, there are multiple cybersecurity concerns. Google recently announced a new disclosure tag required for political ads that used AI to avoid misinformation, just weeks after deepfake robocalls had been reported and used during the primaries to discourage people from voting.