Top line
The FBI confirmed to several media outlets on Monday that it is investigating an alleged hacking attack on former President Donald Trump’s campaign after it said Iran was responsible for the breach. CNN also reported that the FBI believes hackers gained access through the private email account of a campaign staffer.
Trump’s campaign confirmed the hacking attack on Saturday after Politico reported that it had received documents from … (+)
Key data
The FBI confirmed to reporters that it is investigating allegations that confidential documents were stolen from the Trump campaign, but provided few further details.
Two unnamed people familiar with the matter told CNN that the FBI suspects the hackers broke into the personal email account of a senior Trump campaign official in June to gain access to the campaign’s networks.
The FBI also warned President Joe Biden’s campaign – now led by Vice President Kamala Harris – about potential threats from Iranian hackers, CNN reported (the campaign told the network it was “not aware of any security breaches”).
The Trump campaign confirmed the hacking attack on Saturday and named Iran as the perpetrator. Politico had previously reported that it had received emails from an “anonymous account containing documents from Trump’s internal activities,” including months-old investigative material on Trump’s future vice presidential candidate JD Vance.
Forbes has contacted the FBI for confirmation.
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Important background
The Trump campaign offered no evidence that Iran was behind the attack, but cited a Microsoft report released last Friday that said Iranian hackers “sent a spear-phishing email to a senior presidential campaign official in June.” Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied involvement in the hacking to the Associated Press, and the U.S. has not publicly accused Iran of hacking Trump’s campaign. However, Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, warned in July that “Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in its efforts to exert influence from abroad, seeking to foment discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.” Microsoft’s report last week seemed to reach similar conclusions, saying it had observed “the emergence of significant influence activity by Iranian actors” in recent months.
tangent
The alleged hacking of Trump’s campaign team is reminiscent of Russian interference in the 2016 election, which pitted Trump against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Officials say Russian hackers obtained thousands of emails from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s presidential campaign and posted them on a website. They then set up social media accounts to promote the website. Intelligence agencies later concluded that Russia intended to help Trump. At the time, Trump encouraged the hackers, saying, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you can find the 30,000 missing emails.”
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