Iran-Linked Hackers Target Harris, Trump Campaigns – Google

Google has confirmed that Iranian-backed hackers are targeting the campaigns of United States presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, according to a report released on Tuesday.

The hacker group, known as “APT42” and linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been identified as attempting to breach the accounts of high-profile individuals and organizations in the United States and Israel, including government officials and political campaigns.

A spokesperson for Kamala Harris’s campaign revealed that in July, the FBI informed them of attempts by foreign actors to influence their campaign, though no security breaches were detected.

“In July, the campaign legal and security teams were notified by the FBI that we were targeted by a foreign actor influence operation,” a Harris campaign official told AFP.

Google’s threat analysis group also reported that APT42 has been unsuccessful in its attempts to compromise the personal accounts of individuals affiliated with President Joe Biden, Vice President Harris, and Trump.

The hacking tactics employed by APT42 include phishing attacks, where the group deceives targets into revealing their login credentials by creating fake login pages that mimic legitimate websites.

Google noted that it had disrupted attempts by APT42 to hack the Biden and Trump campaigns during the 2020 election and continues to block their efforts.

Additionally, the report mentioned that the group successfully accessed the personal Gmail account of a significant political consultant.

Google described APT42 as a persistent and sophisticated threat, urging individuals associated with the upcoming election to stay vigilant and use the enhanced security measures provided by the company.

Following the announcement from Trump’s campaign that it had been hacked, the U.S. State Department issued a warning to Iran about the potential consequences of election interference.

The Trump campaign has implied that Iran was behind the breach, which resulted in the leak of private documents to the media, although the campaign warned against publishing these materials.