Photo: Brendan Smialowski Agence France-Presse Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris' campaign said Tuesday it had been targeted by foreign hackers.
Agence France-Presse in San Francisco
Published yesterday at 8:10 p.m.
- United States
Google said Wednesday that an Iranian-affiliated hacking group, APT42, was targeting the campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, confirming suspicions and accusations from their campaigns.
“In May and June, APT42 targeted the personal email accounts of approximately a dozen individuals affiliated with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, including current and former U.S. government officials and individuals associated with their respective campaigns,” a Google threat analysis team said in a blog post.
It said it had “blocked multiple attempts by APT42 to connect to the personal email accounts of the targeted individuals.” But the attacks continue.
Google cybersecurity experts “continue to observe unsuccessful attempts by APT42 to compromise the personal accounts of individuals affiliated with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump.”
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000According to them, the hackers are using familiar tactics: They try to get in touch with their targets by posing as journalists (for example), then send phishing emails, containing fake links that then allow access to the emails of the trapped individuals.
The APT42 group is associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to Google.
The California-based internet giant noted that the hackers have also targeted “high-profile users in Israel and the United States,” including government officials, diplomats and researchers.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign said Tuesday that it had been targeted by hackers foreigners.
The day before, the United States had warned Iran about the consequences of interfering in the American presidential election, after Donald Trump’s campaign team claimed to have been hacked, blaming “foreign sources.”
Trump’s campaign suggested Saturday that Iran was behind a hack that allowed journalists to receive internal communications and a dossier on J.D. Vance, the former president’s running mate.
On Friday, Microsoft published a report showing that Iran was increasing its efforts to disrupt the American election on November 5, using fake news sites, cyberattacks and hacks.
In 2016, Donald Trump, then a presidential candidate against Hillary Clinton, was criticized for encouraging Russia to hack the Democrat's emails in order to recover deleted ones.
US intelligence concluded that Russia had influenced the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump, which the Republican denies.