Chinese and Iranian hackers target personal email accounts of staffers working on presidential campaigns for Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but Google insists there are ‘no signs of compromise’
- Google reported attempted attacks on presidential campaign staffers
- Hackers from China targets the personal emails of Joe Biden staffers
- While hackers from Iran went after the emails of Donald Trumps staffers
- Google insists there is no evidence suggesting the attacks were successful
Google uncovered hacking attempts from China and Iran on personal email accounts of presidential campaigns staffers for Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
The announcement was made Thursday and the strike appears to be spear-phishing attacks – similar to the Russian breach of Hillary Clinton‘s campaign chairman in 2016.
A Google spokesperson told DailyMail.com: ‘We can confirm that our Threat Analysis Group recently saw phishing attempts from a Chinese group targeting the personal email accounts of Biden campaign staff and an Iranian group targeting the personal email accounts of Trump campaign staff.’
‘We didn’t see evidence that these attempts were successful.’
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Google uncovered attempted hacking attempts from China and Iran on personal email accounts of presidential campaigns staffers for Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The announcement was made Thursday and the strike appear to be spear-phishing attacks
Google’s chief of threat analysis, Shane Huntley, shared details of the attempted attacks on Twitter Thursday.
‘Recently TAG saw China APT group targeting Biden campaign staff & Iran APT targeting Trump campaign staff with phishing. No sign of compromise,’ reads the tweet.
The groups involved were found to be APT31 and APT35 -APT is an acronym for ‘advanced persistent threat.’
APT35, sometimes also known as Charming Kitten or Newscaster, is Iran-backed and last year Microsoft said it had caught the group trying to target the Trump campaign.
Spokespeople for the Trump and Biden (pictured) campaigns confirmed they were aware of the current attacks and said they had been unsuccessful
The groups involved were found to be APT31 and APT35 -APT is an acronym for ‘advanced persistent threat.’ APT35, sometimes also known as Charming Kitten or Newscaster, is Iran-backed and last year Microsoft said it had caught the group trying to target the Trump campaign
Trump was targeted as his administration weighed a cyberattack against Iran for an attack on Saudi oil facilities last month that the White House charges Tehran with doing.
In a 30-day period between August and September, the group, dubbed ‘Phosphorous’ by the company, made more than 2,700 attempts to identify consumer email accounts belonging to specific customers and then attacked 241 of those accounts.
The report of the attacks showed how cyber security will be a major issue in the 2020 election.
And officials at the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have warned of the danger.
Spokespeople for the Trump and Biden campaigns confirmed to TechCrunch they were aware of the current attacks and said they had been unsuccessful.
‘We have known from the beginning of our campaign that we would be subject to such attacks and we are prepared for them,’ a Biden campaign spokesperson said. Biden for President takes cybersecurity seriously, we will remain vigilant against these threats, and will ensure that the campaign’s assets are secured.’
China and Iran are not the only foreign actors meddling in the election, it seems Russia has come back for a second round. Vladimir Putin’s (pictured) operatives want to both help Trump and create public doubts about the outcome of the election
However, China and Iran are not the only foreign actors meddling in the election, it seems Russia has come back for a second round.
In February, a senior intelligence official told lawmakers that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election to re-elect Donald Trump.
The New York Times revealed that the official was part of a briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by Democratic Trump enemy Adam Schiff, and told lawmakers of both parties about Russia’s backing for a second Trump term.
The committee members were briefed that Russia favors Trump, CNN reported, and were also told about its efforts to hack and attack election infrastructure and the
Kremlin’s continued attempts to use social media platforms in its campaign of distrust.
Vladimir Putin’s operatives want to both help Trump and create public doubts about the outcome of the election, the officials briefed lawmakers during the session about ‘the integrity of our upcoming elections.’