Personal e-mail accounts of US election campaign workers targeted in cyber attack
A group of hackers affiliated with Iran carried out a cyber attack on the personal e-mail accounts of several individuals associated with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. According to Google, this group, known as APT42, targeted the campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in May and June.
The hackers used familiar tactics to gain access to their targets’ e-mail accounts. Initially, they contacted their victims by posing as journalists or sending phishing e-mails with fake links that allowed them to access the victim’s inbox. Google reportedly blocked many of APT42’s attempts to contact the targeted individuals.
According to a team at Google that analysed online threats, “APT42 has attacked personal e-mail accounts of about a dozen people associated with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, including current and former government officials and campaign staff.”
Google has linked the APT42 group to the Revolutionary Guards, an ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This revelation comes at a time when tensions between the United States and Iran have risen in recent weeks.
Kamala Harris’ campaign team announced on 13 August that foreign hackers had been targeted. A day earlier, the US government warned Iran of the consequences of interfering in the US presidential election after Trump’s campaign team accused “foreign sources” of hacking its systems.
The Trump team has accused Iran of being behind a hack that allowed sensitive communications and a dossier on J.D. Vance, running mate of the former president, to be sent to journalists. Microsoft had previously reported Iran’s increasing efforts to disrupt the US presidential election – taking place on 5 November – through fake news sites, cyber attacks and hacking.
In 2016, Donald Trump, who was running for president over Hillary Clinton, faced criticism for encouraging Russia to hack into her campaign’s e-mail accounts in search of deleted e-mails. US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had influenced the 2016 election in favour of Donald Trump, an allegation he denies.
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