US POLITICS

What emails has Trump received to say he has suffered a cyberattack?

Donald Trump’s campaign claims he was hacked by Iran. What information have they released so far about the attack?

Umit BektasREUTERS

The Trump campaign has announced that they have been hacked, accusing a foreign entity of doing so in an attempt to interfere in the 2024 General Election.

The campaign is attacking actors like Iran in an attempt to show that the country is afraid of what will happen if he enters the White House for a second term. In January 2020, Donald Trump signed off on the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, which further soared relations between the two countries, which have not had open diplomatic relations for decades. However, the administration would need to make public any information they have as to why they accuse Iran of launching the attack, as the Democratic party is not on good terms with the regime either.

In 2016, the DNC suffered a significant hack that US intelligence officials have accused Russia of carrying out to aid Trump in that election. It came after then-candidate Trump had called on the Russian government to hack the Democrats.

What has the campaign said about the hack?

The campaign did not provide its own evidence that Iran carried out the hack and instead referenced a report released by Microsoft last week titled “Iran steps into US election 2024 with cyber-enabled influence operations.” Steven Cheung, the current Trump campaign spokesperson, said that the aim of the hackers was to “interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process.” Such language implies that Democrats could also be vulnerable to similar attacks as we get closer to the election.

However, the only information about the hack detailed in the press release was how they assumed the hackers penetrated the security systems. It appears that they “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.” No ransom-style emails were sent to Donald Trump demanding that the stolen data be returned.

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