Trump campaign confirms it was hacked.
In the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, foreign national hackers targeted the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Fast-forward two campaigns later, and now it appears that the Donald Trump campaign has been targeted by state-sponsored hackers, but this time with what looks like devastating success.
As first reported by Politico, former President Donald Trump’s 2024 election campaign confirmed that “some of its internal communications” had been hacked by “foreign sources hostile to the United States.”
JD Vance Dirty Laundry Vetting Document Hacked By Foreign Sources
This follows the distribution of anonymous emails, originating from an AOL email account, to Politico reporters that contained internal communications from an unnamed senior official in the Trump campaign. Included within these communications was, Politico reported, a 271-page research dossier concerning Senator JD Vance that appeared to be a draft version, dated February 23, of a vetting file for the vice-president pick.
Although the full contents of the dossier have not yet been made public by either the hacker or Politico, multiple sources familiar with the dossier have confirmed its authenticity, the Politico report stated.
Was The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Unit Responsible?
There are key differences between the 2024 hacking and the 2016 targeting of Hillary Clinton emails. In 2016 the attacks were attributed to nation-state hacking groups from Russia, whereas this new breach of Trump campaign staff security is currently being laid firmly at the door of Iranian hackers. It has been reported by multiple outlets that the hostile foreign sources mentioned in the Politico report were affiliated with Iran. The Trump campaign has cited an August 9 Microsoft threat intelligence report that stated “Iranian actors have recently laid the groundwork for influence operations aimed at US audiences and potentially seeking to impact the 2024 US presidential election.”
The Microsoft intelligence report stated that, in June 2024, a group operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence unit, and going by the name of Mint Sandstorm, had “sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.”
Trump 2024 Presidential Campaign Election Interference Claim
The Politico report stated that the dossier included “potential vulnerabilities” of choosing Vance as the vice-presidential pick, which has some parallels to another election hacking incident, this time during the 2020 Trump campaign. As I reported at the time, a ransomware cybercrime group called REvil had claimed to have compromising emails following the successful theft of data from a New York law firm and were demanding a $42 million ransom to prevent publication. As it turned out, the dirty laundry in that case was more of a damp squib than a smoking gun, containing any stolen legal document that was returned from a search for ‘Trump’ no matter the context.
At this point in time it is not clear if the attacker has made any demands of the Trump 2024 campaign. In an emailed statement to a reporter at Axios, Trump’s campaign communications director, Steven Cheung, would only reiterate that the documents were “obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States,” and “intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our democratic process.”
I have reached out to the Trump 2024 campaign for more information.
