Iranian-Backed Hackers Attack Presidential Campaigns: Google

Company says it detected the efforts against Harris, Trump operations, which continue
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 14, 2024 7:25 PM CDT
Iranian-Backed Hackers Attack Presidential Campaigns: Google
Revolutionary Guard members patrol during the outskirts of a rally at Azadi (Freedom) Square celebrating the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, in Tehran, Iran, in 2020.   (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Hackers linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard are mounting cyberattacks on the US presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Google said Wednesday. In a research report, the company's Threat Analysis Group said that it detected the efforts in May and June and that they're continuing, NBC News reports. The report said Google "continues to observe" unsuccessful attempts to get into accounts affiliated with President Biden, Harris, and Trump. The targets include the email accounts of US officials and people associated with the campaigns, per CNN.

The hackers did breech the personal Gmail account of an unidentified person the report called "a high-profile political consultant." Trump said Iran is behind efforts to hack his campaign, and Harris' campaign said Tuesday it was struck by a "foreign actor influence operation," adding that it wasn't aware of any damage. The campaign attacks are part of a larger effort against US and Israeli targets, Google said, and they've used the Google products Sites, Drive, and Gmail.

The Iranian government hacking operation known as APT42 also attempted to interfere in the 2020 US presidential elections, per Politico, and Google worked to block it then. A spokesperson for Iran's UN mission didn't immediately reply to a request for comment, per NBC, but Iranian state media previously reported the government's denial of involvement in hacking Trump's campaign. "With less than 100 days to go before the election, it is clear that our foreign adversaries are intently interested in disrupting our democratic process," the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a statement Wednesday. (More hacking stories.)

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