Kamala Harris’ Team affected by cyber attack

In the midst of the election campaign, hackers have targeted both the Republicans and the Democrats. Is this an attempt to influence the U.S. presidential election?

The campaign team of Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris has reportedly become the target of a foreign cyberattack. A spokeswoman confirmed this to the German Press Agency upon request. According to her, the team was informed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in July about an “influence operation by foreign actors.” However, the spokeswoman emphasized that they have “robust cybersecurity” and, to their current knowledge, no breaches into the systems have occurred. “We remain in contact with the relevant law enforcement authorities,” the spokeswoman added.

Earlier, the FBI had already confirmed that it was investigating a possible hacker breach of the internal communications of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign team. “Politico” was the first to report on the case over the weekend after the news portal received several emails from a sender named “Robert,” which contained internal communications of the campaign team. The “Washington Post” and “New York Times” were contacted in a similar manner.

Microsoft warned of alleged interference by Iran

According to “Politico,” the Trump team blamed “foreign actors hostile to the U.S.” for the cyberattack and cited a threat analysis by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, which discussed alleged Iranian interference in the U.S. election campaign. The analysis stated that a group linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps—the elite military force of the Islamic Republic—had breached the account of a former senior member of a campaign team and used it to send so-called spear-phishing emails.

Although Microsoft did not identify specific individuals or parties in the threat analysis, U.S. media suggested that close Trump confidant Roger Stone might have been affected. Stone told the “Washington Post” that his email account had been compromised. His lawyer told CNN that he had been contacted by both Microsoft and the FBI regarding the matter.

The Trump team did not provide direct evidence of a hack by Iranian actors to “Politico.” The “Washington Post,” citing sources familiar with the situation, reported that the FBI suspected Iranian actors behind the cyberattacks, but it was less clear whether the same groups had sent the emails to U.S. journalists.

dpa