Trump says Iran hacked his campaign

The Trump campaign claims it was hacked by Iran — though it’s unclear what information the alleged hackers actually obtained. FBI The matter is reportedly under investigation.

Here’s what we can confirm: Microsoft released a report last Friday. The company claimed to have discovered a group with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) using “compromised email accounts” to try to gain access to the systems of “senior presidential campaign officials.” It did not name the presidential campaign or elaborate on whether the attempt was successful.

Saturday, Politico The report detailed documents it received from a mysterious AOL email address from a person named Robert. The materials appear to have come from the Trump campaign, including what appears to be a draft review of potential vice presidential candidate Florida Senator Marco Rubio and the campaign’s actual candidate, Ohio Senator Marco Rubio. Senator J.D. VanceSunday, The New York Times The newspaper also received what appeared to be an identical document from a sender who also claimed to be a Politico source.

Shortly after Politico published its Saturday article, the Trump campaign Statement to Politico The statement also suggested that Iran was behind the attack, according to Politico. Former President Donald Trump then made that suggestion clear on Saturday night, writing Truth Society“Microsoft has just notified us that one of our websites has been hacked by the Iranian government – this is definitely not a good thing!”

On Monday, the FBI announced it was investigating Trump’s claims.

There’s still a lot of uncertainty about the alleged hack and foreign interference in the 2024 election. But here are some other key things to know.

While the Trump campaign has made it clear that it was a target of Iranian attacks, Microsoft has not been so outspoken.

According to a report from Microsoft, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has conducted a large-scale hacking campaign during the past few election cycles involving at least four groups – Cotton Sandstorm, Lemon Sandstorm, Mint Sandstorm and Peach Sandstorm. Microsoft Threat Analysis CenterThe department, which is responsible for protecting companies and their users from cybercrime, noticed that someone “sent a spear-phishing email to a senior official of the presidential campaign in June through a compromised email account of a former senior adviser.”

Spear phishing is when a hacker or hacker group attempts to gain access to the digital space of a specific individual or organization by placing a malicious link in a message that, when clicked by the recipient, can install malware on the machine that allows the hacker to access the information contained in the message. Microsoft said in a statement Blog Posts It has “notified those who were the subject of the spear-phishing attack”.

While the MTAC report does not explicitly state whether Mint Sandstorm’s spear-phishing attack was successful, it does outline other ways the IRGC appeared to be planning to influence the election, including setting up fake news sites with polarizing content about the Israel-Hamas conflict and LGBTQ rights, as well as the presidential candidates themselves.

If Iran was behind the phishing attempt, and if the country did share the documents with American journalists, it could be a sign that Iran is trying to turn voters away from Trump, a former president who has claimed that his Iran policy is better and tougher than that of the Democratic Party.

His first administration did implement a “maximum pressure campaign” against the Islamic Republic. In January 2020, he ordered the assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani, both a practical and ideological blow to Iran. Soleimani was highly respected in Iran and a central figurehead for outside groups linked to the regime, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Shia militias in Iraq and Syria.

Trump also vetoed the 2015 nuclear deal, which would have provided for Iran to ease sanctions in exchange for increased international monitoring and a gradual halt to its nuclear weapons development program. Accelerating weapons development.

The documents received by reporters did not appear to contain any bombshell news affecting the campaign.

But the whole incident is a reminder that online attempts to influence voters are similar to those of Russia in 2016 and 2020 ElectionThis time, Russia and China are also trying to influence the current election. According to Microsoft.

Those efforts appear to include Chinese plans to use social media to stoke tensions, such as during campus protests this spring. Much of the Russian effort appears to be focused on spreading disinformation about Ukraine and its relationship with U.S. intelligence agencies, as well as fomenting polarization online, particularly over immigration.

With less than three months until the US election, we may see further attempts to interfere in the US election from Iran, Russia, and China.