Google has reported that Iranian hackers targeted both the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns in May and June as part of an ongoing email phishing campaign. The hacking operation, tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, attempted to access the personal email accounts of individuals associated with both campaigns. Google disrupted the phishing attempts and referred a security breach involving a high-profile political consultant’s Gmail account to law enforcement.
The Revolutionary Guard hackers persistently targeted accounts affiliated with Biden, Harris, and Trump, using various Google products in their hacking attempts. The attempted hacks are part of a larger campaign targeting U.S. and Israeli entities. Reports of a credible hacking threat to U.S. presidential campaigns emerged when Microsoft revealed that hackers affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard had accessed the email account of a former senior adviser to a campaign.
Only the Trump campaign has publicly stated that it was hacked, although no major cybersecurity company or government agency has confirmed successful hacking by Iran. The FBI is investigating the hacking attempts on both campaigns. The series of events occurred after a U.S. intelligence official warned of Iran’s likely efforts to denigrate Trump. The Iranian Mission to the United Nations has not commented on the allegations. Politico, The Washington Post, and The New York Times received emails with what appeared to be Trump campaign files, signaling a potential “hack-and-leak” operation.
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