The Hacking of Presidential Campaigns Begins, With the Usual Fog of Motives

For the third presidential election in a row, the foreign hacking of the campaigns has begun in earnest. But this time, it’s the Iranians, not the Russians, making the first significant move. On Friday, Microsoft released a report declaring that a hacking group run by the intelligence unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had
The Hacking of Presidential Campaigns Begins, With the Usual Fog of Motives

For the third presidential election in a row, the foreign hacking of the campaigns has begun in earnest. But this time, it’s the Iranians, not the Russians, making the first significant move.

On Friday, Microsoft released a report declaring that a hacking group run by the intelligence unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had successfully breached the account of a “former senior adviser” to a presidential campaign. From that account, Microsoft said, the group sent fake email messages, known as “spear phishing,” to “a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign” in an effort to break into the campaign’s own accounts and databases.

By Saturday night, former President Donald J. Trump was declaring that Microsoft had informed his campaign “that one of our many websites was hacked by the Iranian Government — Never a nice thing to do!” but that the hackers had obtained only “publicly available information.” He attributed it all to what he called, in his signature selective capitalization, a “Weak and Ineffective” Biden administration.

The facts were murkier, and it is unclear what, if anything, the Iranian group, which Microsoft called Mint Sandstorm, was able to achieve.

,

Mr. Trump’s campaign was already blaming “foreign sources hostile to the United States” for a leak of internal documents that Politico reported on Saturday that it had received, though it is unclear whether those documents indeed emerged from the Iranian efforts or were part of an unrelated leak from inside the campaign.

The New York Times received what appears to be a similar if not identical trove of data from an anonymous tipster purporting to be the same person who emailed the documents to Politico.

Total
0
Shares
Leave a Reply
Related Posts
Liam Fox’s VERY bizarre pop credentials: Tory MP claims he helped ‘very good friend’ Natalia Imbruglia with 90s pop ballad Torn
Read More

Liam Fox’s VERY bizarre pop credentials: Tory MP claims he helped ‘very good friend’ Natalia Imbruglia with 90s pop ballad Torn

Former defence secretary Liam Fox claimed he had a helping hand in picking out the popular 90s pop song for Natalie Imbruglia who he dubbed a 'very good friend'. The Tory MP recently lost his North Somerset seat during the most recent general election, which saw Labour claim a loveless landslide, bagging 412 seats. However
Iran’s Supreme Leader Orders ‘Direct’ Retaliation Strikes On Israel: Officials
Read More

Iran’s Supreme Leader Orders ‘Direct’ Retaliation Strikes On Israel: Officials

Update(1550ET): Multiple Iranian officials have told the New York Times in a breaking story that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered retaliation against Israel for the brazen assassination by missile strike of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh which took place on Iranian soil in the early morning hours. Officials referenced the "humiliating security failure" and that Iran