Trump campaign says it was hacked
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Former President Trump speaks at a rally at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State University on Aug. 9, 2024 in Bozeman, Montana. Photo: Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images
Former President Trump's campaign confirmed Saturday it was hacked, which Politico first reported after receiving internal documents from an anonymous account.
The big picture: The Microsoft report the Trump campaign cited in describing the hack details "Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations" in the last three U.S. election cycles.
- The report released Friday by Microsoft's threat analysis center describes "significant influence activity by Iranian actors" over the past several months.
Yes, but: It distinguishes Iran operations from Russian campaigns "for appearing later in the election season and employing cyberattacks more geared toward election conduct than swaying voters."
- "Recent activity suggests the Iranian regime—along with the Kremlin—may be equally engaged in election 2024," Microsoft writes.
What they're saying: Steven Cheung, Trump's campaign communications director, said in an email to Axios that the hacked documents were "obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process."
- "Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America's enemies and doing exactly what they want," Cheung said.
- He linked the timing of the Pennsylvania rally shooting that wounded the former president's right ear with the timing of an unrelated Iranian plot to assassinate Trump.
Zoom in: The Microsoft report didn't reference the shooting, and the company was hesitant to assume intent.
- It said "a group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit" sent "a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor" in June.
- "The phishing email contained a fake forward with a hyperlink that directs traffic through an actor-controlled domain before redirecting to the listed domain."
- Microsoft says the group "similarly targeted" a presidential campaign in May and June of 2020, but that given the group's "regular targeting of senior political officials for intelligence collection unrelated to elections, additional evidence is required to make a determination."
Microsoft pushed for senior policymakers to "be cognizant of monitoring and following cybersecurity best practices."
Go deeper: Iranian hackers target U.S. presidential campaign official, Microsoft says
Editor's note: This story has been updated with details from the Microsoft report.
