The Investigation into Trump’s Campaign Cybersecurity Breach
FBI Investigating Allegations of Stolen Sensitive Documents, Iranian Hack
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is actively investigating allegations that sensitive documents belonging to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign were compromised in a cyber intrusion. The investigation comes just days after the Trump campaign claimed it had been targeted by Iranian hackers.
According to a brief statement released by the FBI, the agency is investigating the matter. The Trump campaign, however, has not provided specific evidence to support their claim of Iranian involvement. However, the allegation surfaced shortly after Microsoft published a report highlighting foreign agents’ attempts to interfere in the 2024 U.S. election. The report cited an incident in June where an Iranian military intelligence unit sent phishing emails to a high-ranking presidential campaign official.
Separately, two sources familiar with the situation have revealed that the Biden-Harris campaign was also targeted in the suspected Iranian cyber intrusion being investigated by the FBI. These sources requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the investigation.
As reported by Politico, anonymous emails containing what appeared to be a research dossier on Republican vice presidential nominee Ohio Sen. JD Vance were sent to Politico on July 22. The document was dated February 23, months before Vance was chosen as Trump’s running mate.
“These documents were obtained illegally” and “intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” stated Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.
The Biden-Harris campaign reported that at least three staffers were targeted with phishing emails, but investigations have yet to uncover evidence of a successful breach. The attempts occurred before President Joe Biden withdrew from the race.
The FBI began investigating the cyber incident involving the Biden-Harris campaign in June, and intelligence officials suspect Iranian involvement. Officials have also been collaborating with tech companies to monitor potential targeting of individuals associated with the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns via email.
The Harris campaign issued a statement regarding the situation, emphasizing their vigilance in monitoring and safeguarding against cyber threats. They further stated that they were not aware of any security breaches within their systems and declined to comment on the presence of any state-based intrusion attempts.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied involvement when questioned about the Trump campaign’s claims.
However, Iran has a history of conducting hacking campaigns targeting adversaries in the Middle East and beyond. Tehran has also threatened retaliation against Trump for ordering the 2020 drone strike that killed prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Microsoft’s report stated that “foreign malign influence concerning the 2024 US election started off slowly but has steadily picked up pace over the last six months due initially to Russian operations, but more recently from Iranian activity.”
The analysis continued: “Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran’s operations have been notable and distinguishable 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 concluded.