Microsoft said on Friday that a high-ranking official on a U.S. presidential campaign had been hacked by an Iran-backed group. The Trump campaign later revealed that it was the target of a cyber attack by “foreign sources hostile to the United States.”
Politico reported that on July 22 it began receiving emails from an anonymous source using the alias Robert. The emails reportedly contained internal documents from the Trump campaign. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Politico that the release of the stolen documents was “intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our democratic process.”
Cheung linked the timing of the breach to reports of Iranian plots against Trump, who remains a target of Iranian hostility after ordering the 2020 assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a statement in July confirming that Iranian groups had targeted the U.S. political campaign, specifically that of Trump, to influence the upcoming election.
