Google says it saw Iran trying to hack the Trump, Biden-Harris campaigns
Google said in a research report that it detected efforts by Iranian hackers to target both the Trump and the Biden-Harris campaigns in May and June.
Google said in a research report Wednesday that it detected efforts by Iranian hackers to target both the Trump and the Biden-Harris campaigns in May and June, part of a larger email phishing operation that still persists.
Google’s announcement adds credence to the Trump campaign’s claim Saturday that it had been hacked as part of an Iranian campaign to interfere with the election.
In its report, Google’s Threat Analysis Group, which tracks government-backed cyberattacks, said it had disrupted a “small but steady” phishing operation from a hacking unit tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In May and June, “targets included the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen individuals affiliated with President Biden and with former President Trump, including current and former officials in the U.S. government and individuals associated with the respective campaigns,” Google said in its report. The company blocked “numerous” attempts to log in to the targets’ personal email addresses, it said.
Google said the hacking operation accessed the Gmail account of at least one high-profile political consultant in July. The company said it went on to secure the account and referred the matter to law enforcement. The company didn’t disclose the identity of the consultant or whether the consultant was involved with either campaign.
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