PoliticoRussia, China and Iran trying to hack US presidential race, Microsoft says
- Hundreds of organisations and individuals targeted, including Trump and Biden campaigns, political parties, consultants and think tanks
- Perpetrators include same Kremlin-aligned group whose leaks of confidential documents helped torpedo Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes in 2016
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Tim Starks on politico.com on September 10, 2020.
Russian, Chinese and Iranian hackers have mounted cyberattacks against hundreds of organisations and people involved in the 2020 presidential race and US-European policy debates, with targets including the campaigns of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Microsoft said on Thursday.
The report is the most expansive public warning to date about the rapid spread of foreign governments' efforts to wield hackers to undermine US democracy.
The perpetrators include the same Kremlin-aligned Russian hacking group whose thefts and leaks of confidential Democratic Party documents helped torpedo Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes in 2016, said Microsoft, which offers products designed to detect such attacks.
Targets this time include the Trump and Biden campaigns, administration officials and an array of national and state parties, political consultants and think tanks, as well as groups such as the German Marshall Fund and Stimson Centre that promote international cooperation.
“The activity we are announcing today makes clear that foreign activity groups have stepped up their efforts targeting the 2020 election as had been anticipated,” Microsoft said in a blog post. It added that its security tools detected and blocked “the majority of these attacks”.