Sources told CNN that those who hacked and leaked former President Donald Trump’s campaign documents targeted Roger Stone’s email to access an account belonging to a Trump senior campaign official.
Trump blamed the attack on Iran. From CNN:
The hackers used access to Stone’s email account to try to break into the account of a senior Trump campaign official as part of a persistent effort to access campaign networks, one of the sources said. The hacking incident, which occurred in June, set off a scramble in the Trump campaign, the FBI and Microsoft, which spotted the intrusion attempts, to contain the incident and to determine if there was a broader cyber threat from Iran.Stone was informed by Microsoft and the FBI that his personal email was compromised by a “Foreign State Actor,” with the intention of utilizing the account to phish officials in the Trump campaign into opening a link that would give perpetrators access to that person’s computer, one of the sources familiar said.“Mr. Stone was contacted about this matter by Microsoft and the FBI and continues to cooperate with both,” said Grant Smith, an attorney for the Republican operative. “Mr. Stone will have no further comment at this time.”
The FBI also suspects Iran.
A person called “Robert” with an AOL account contacted The Washington Post, claiming they had “access to internal Trump campaign documents.”
The FBI also alerted the then-Biden-Harris campaign in June about Iranian hackers.
Iran denied the allegations:
Iran has denied the allegations, and the US government has not publicly or officially pointed the finger at Iran. But the techniques used by the hackers to target the Trump campaign match those associated with Iranian hackers, according to one source familiar with the matter.The news adds to growing evidence that Iranian operatives are mounting an aggressive effort to influence the 2024 US presidential election, overshadowing activity from the Russians. US intelligence officials last month warned of an ongoing covert social media campaign by Iran to undercut Trump’s candidacy and to increase “social discord” in the US ahead of the November election. That activity has included creating fake news sites targeting liberal and conservative voters, according to Microsoft.The US director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, has also accused Iran of attempting to covertly stoke protests in the US related to the Israel-Hamas conflict by posing as activists online and in some cases providing financial support to protesters.
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