- Kamala Harris'team appears to be the target of foreign cyber attacks
The campaign team of Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris has reportedly been targeted in a foreign cyberattack. According to their own statements, the team was informed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about a "foreign influence operation" as early as July.
A spokesperson for the Harris campaign emphasized that they have "robust cybersecurity" and, to their current knowledge, no unauthorized access has been gained. "We continue to be in contact with the relevant law enforcement agencies."
Previously, the FBI had confirmed that they are investigating a possible hacker intrusion into the internal communications of the campaign team of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. "Politico" first reported on the case over the weekend after the news portal received several emails from an sender named "Robert" containing internal campaign communications. The "Washington Post" and "New York Times" were contacted in a similar manner.
Not only Kamala Harris, but Trump's team also appears to have been attacked
According to "Politico", the Trump team blamed "adversarial foreign actors" for the cyberattack and cited a threat analysis from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, which mentions alleged Iranian interference in the U.S. election campaign. The analysis states that a group linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has gained access to the account of a former high-ranking member of a campaign team and sent so-called spear-phishing emails from there.
Microsoft did not identify any specific persons or parties in the threat analysis. However, according to U.S. media, Roger Stone, a close Trump ally, could be affected. He told the "Washington Post" that his email account had been compromised. His lawyer told CNN that he had been contacted by both Microsoft and the FBI in the matter.
The Trump team did not provide direct evidence of a hack by Iranian actors to "Politico". According to the "Washington Post", citing sources familiar with the situation, the FBI suspects Iranian actors behind the cyberattacks, but it is less clear whether the same groups also sent the emails to U.S. journalists.
I'm not going to speculate about the motives behind these cyberattacks, but it's concerning that both the Harris and Trump campaign teams have been targeted. I'm not going to jump to conclusions before the investigations are completed.
