With the 2020 American general elections less than 150 days away, the race to hack seems to have kicked off with Google revealing that state-based hackers in Iran and China have targeted the campaigns of both President Donald Trump, who is running under the Republican ticket and his Democrat opponent, Joe Biden.
Revealing what was uncovered, Shane Huntley, director for Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), in a series of tweets posted on Thursday, said that Iran had tried to hack into Gmail accounts used by President Trumps reelection campaign staff in an attempt to access sensitive information, while China had tried to hack staff of former vice president Joe Biden, who seems to be headed for the Democrat ticket this year. Huntley, however, said that there was “no sign of compromise” and both the parties affected and federal law enforcement had been notified.
Huntley further explained that APT31 was a Chinese backed hacking group and APT35 was an Iranian backed hacking group, both of which are said to be known to the threat analysis team for targeting government officials.
Trump and Biden Respond
Both parties have addressed the near-breach with Biden’s campaign telling news agency ABC, that it was aware of the unsuccessful attacks on its staff personal emails after receiving reports from Google. The team also expressed preparedness for situations like this in American elections, saying, “We have known from the beginning of our campaign that we would be subject to such attacks and we are prepared for them . . . We will remain vigilant against these threats, and will ensure that the campaign’s assets are secured.”
Likewise, Trump’s campaign team is reported saying that it had been briefed on the unsuccessful hacking attempt, but would not share more details on the cybersecurity precautions it currently has in place. There was no indication as to whether the hacking groups of Iran and China had any connection.
“It’s no surprise the Chinese and Iranian governments are trying to compromise our 2020 presidential campaigns through cyberattacks. Their goal is simple: suck up information about our candidates’ campaigns and then create conflict and chaos in our election,” said Matt Rhoades, who managed Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign. “It doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or Republican, they are coming for you,” he added.
