Trump, Biden, Harris targeted in Iran phishing campaign, Google finds
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Former President Trump at a rally on August 9. Photo: Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images
Iran has targeted roughly a dozen people tied to President Biden and former President Trump, including those in the government and associated with their campaigns, as part of a long-running phishing attack, Google said in a report today.
Why it matters: Until now, no third-party organizations had verified the Trump campaign's claim that it was the target of an Iranian hack.
- The report is also the first to officially say that Iran also targeted the Biden-Harris administration and its associated presidential campaigns.
Catch up quick: The FBI said Monday it's actively investigating reports that Iran hacked the Trump campaign.
- Microsoft said last week that a high-ranking official at a U.S. presidential campaign was the target of a spear-phishing attack.
- Roger Stone told the Wall Street Journal this week that hackers had compromised his personal email account to send malicious email links to Trump campaign officials.
Zoom in: Google said in its report Wednesday that APT42 — a Iranian government hacking group that's also known as Charming Kitten and Mint Sandstorm — had targeted about a dozen individuals in May and June.
- The hackers primarily targeted these officials' personal email accounts across multiple email providers.
- At least one of these attacks — against a high-profile political consultant — was successful, Google found.
Yes, but: Google did not confirm that this is how an anonymous source leaked reportedly authentic documents stolen from the Trump campaign to Politico, the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Threat level: Google security researchers are still seeing APT42 attempting to hack personal email accounts associated with Biden, Trump and Vice President Harris.
- APT42's known tactics include embedding malicious links into both the body of emails and also into otherwise benign-looking PDF attachments — making it more difficult for users to detect.
- The same hacking group has also been known to engage with targets on encrypted messaging platforms, like Signal and WhatsApp, to build trust.
Go deeper: Election 2024's cyber chaos is kicking in
