FBI launches investigation into possible Iranian hacking of Trump campaign
Investigating potential foreign interference
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has initiated an investigation to determine whether Iranian state actors were behind a recent hacking attempt targeting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. “We can confirm the FBI is investigating the matter,” the agency said in a statement on Monday, August 12.
In addition to probing the Trump campaign breach, the FBI is also looking into whether the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign was similarly targeted by Iranian hackers, according to a CBS report.
Trump’s campaign claims foreign interference
Last week, the Trump campaign reported that it had been hacked, suggesting that Iranian actors were involved in stealing and distributing internal documents. Among the leaked materials was a dossier on Trump’s vice-presidential pick, JD Vance. U.S. media outlets reportedly received emails containing the campaign material, starting on July 22, from an anonymous source. The document in question was dated February 23, nearly five months before Trump announced Vance as his running mate.
“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our democratic process,” said Donald Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung in a statement. He further warned that any media outlets reprinting these documents would be “doing the bidding of America’s enemies.”
Microsoft’s findings and the evolving threat
Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) revealed that Trump’s campaign had received a phishing email, which led to the hacking attempt. Phishing emails are designed to appear trustworthy, but once a user clicks on a malicious link, hackers can infiltrate their network.
Trump acknowledged that the hackers were “only able to gather publicly available information,” but he expressed concerns about the potential for further Iranian cyberattacks.
The Trump campaign’s allegations surfaced a day after Microsoft released a report indicating that Iran was evolving its tactics for the upcoming U.S. elections, which could have significant global implications. The report detailed how a group linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit had sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official in a presidential campaign. Another IRGC-affiliated group reportedly compromised a user account at a county-level government.
Additionally, the report noted that Tehran-backed groups were launching “secret” news sites that used AI to lift content from legitimate sources, targeting U.S. voters across the political spectrum.
