Harris Campaign Says It Was Targeted by ‘Foreign Actor’ After Trump Claims

Recent revelations indicate that Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has been targeted by a “foreign actor influence operation.” This news comes shortly after Donald Trump’s campaign accused Iran of attempting to hack into their operations, following the leaks of sensitive documents to the media.

According to an anonymous official, the vice-president’s team was informed about a potential breach by the FBI last month. They are currently collaborating with authorities to investigate the incident.

“We have robust cybersecurity measures in place, and are not aware of any security breaches of our systems resulting from those efforts,” the official stated. This assurance comes amidst heightened scrutiny regarding cybersecurity in political campaigns.

The FBI has been investigating attempts to penetrate the Biden-Harris campaign prior to President Biden’s sudden withdrawal from the Democratic ticket last month, as reported by The Washington Post. The investigation revealed that spear-phishing emails were sent to three aides in the Harris camp, indicating a coordinated effort to infiltrate their broader communication networks.

The FBI also confirmed it is looking into claims made by Trump’s campaign regarding a hack attributed to a group with links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Following these claims, Microsoft unveiled that they suspect the Iranian intelligence agency was behind a phishing email sent to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign. This email was sent from the compromised account of Roger Stone, a long-time advisor to Trump.

Roger Stone, a notable Republican operative, previously faced conviction for lying to Congress about seeking damaging information on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. He was later pardoned by Trump, which adds another layer of complexity to this situation.

The phishing attempt aimed to use Stone’s account as a platform to access another account belonging to a senior campaign member. Shortly after this, an attempt was made to log into the account of a former presidential candidate, as mentioned in Microsoft’s report.

Stone has been in contact with both Microsoft and the FBI regarding this issue and is cooperating with the ongoing investigations. He described the situation as “all very strange” and confirmed that he does not possess any additional information about the matter.

Following Microsoft’s disclosure, Trump took to Truth Social to announce that he had been informed of a hack involving “one of our many websites” by the Iranian government, expressing his discontent over the situation.

The Independent has not verified whether Iran was indeed behind the hacking of Trump’s campaign. The Trump campaign disclosed that they were compromised after several news agencies received an internal document detailing the vetting process for Trump’s proposed running mate, JD Vance. The connection between this document leak and the alleged Iran-backed hacking attempt through Stone’s email remains uncertain.

Moreover, Microsoft reported that another Iranian-linked group was responsible for breaching the account of a county-level government employee in a critical swing state. Another Iranian faction has supposedly been targeting American voters by using artificial intelligence to create propaganda websites masquerading as news outlets, often plagiarizing content from legitimate U.S. publications.

In February, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence highlighted in its Annual Threat Assessment report that Iran, alongside China and Russia, could pose significant risks to the electoral process in the United States, potentially swaying public opinion and causing domestic discord.

U.S. intelligence officials reiterated these concerns in July, warning that Iran would likely pursue methods to “coerce political leaders, undermine political systems, and shape the political landscape to support its national security goals,” much like they did in the lead-up to the 2020 election.

The Independent has reached out to the FBI for more details on the alleged hacking attempts on Harris’s campaign. The ongoing investigations underscore the critical importance of cybersecurity in political campaigns, especially as the U.S. approaches another national election cycle.