FBI probes claims Iran hacked Trump campaign

The FBI has launched an investigation into accusations that the Trump campaign was targeted by hackers working for the Iranian government.
“We can confirm the FBI is investigating the matter,” the agency said in a brief statement on Monday, not mentioning either the former president or Iran.
According to a Trump campaign spokeswoman, the records were unlawfully obtained by “foreign sources hostile to the United States”.
Iranian officials have denied any involvement in the breach, and the US administration has not publicly charged Iran.
The FBI is also investigating whether Iranian hackers targeted the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign, according to CBS News, the BBC’s news partner, citing sources familiar with the matter.

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The Trump campaign announcement comes one day after Microsoft revealed that Iranian hackers attacked the campaign of an unknown US presidential contender in June.
According to Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center (MTAC), the campaign was sent using spear-phishing email, which is a message meant to appear trustworthy in order to trick the recipient into clicking on a malicious link.
On Saturday, Trump stated that the hackers were “only able to get publicly available information”.
The FBI launched the probes in early July, following phishing attempts on both campaigns, according to CBS News.

According to the Washington Post, three Biden-Harris campaign staff members were also targeted by phishing emails in the days leading up to President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would withdraw from the race.
In a media statement, a Harris campaign representative stated that the campaign “vigilantly monitors and protects against cyberthreats, and we are not aware of any security breaches of our systems”.
The BBC contacted the Harris campaign for comment.
According to the Washington Post, the FBI’s investigation into the cyber efforts began in June.
Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff was among numerous members who urged the FBI to divulge all it knew about the cyber attempts.

He stated that the US intelligence community “moved far too slowly to properly identify the hacking and dumping scheme carried out by Russia” in 2016 and “should act quickly here.”
It comes after Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell said he wanted a briefing from the Department of Homeland Security on the “alleged hack of Trump’s presidential campaign”.
“Trump is the most horrible candidate ever. He also sought foreign hackers in a previous election. But it does not imply America will ever tolerate foreign intervention,” he said on X/Twitter on Saturday.

During campaign rallies in 2016, he begged Russia to hack his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
US security officials have previously warned of an Iranian plan to murder Trump that was unrelated to last month’s attempted shooting in Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday, the US Justice Department accused a Pakistani man allegedly linked to Iran with planning to kill US leaders, including the former president.