Chinese and Iranian hackers target Biden, Trump campaigns

Chinese and Iranian government-backed hackers recently unsuccessfully targeted campaign staff for both President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, a Google threat researcher announced Thursday.

Shane Huntley, a member of Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), tweeted that TAG had seen advanced persistent threat (APT) groups sending malicious phishing emails to campaign staffers.

“Recently TAG saw China APT group targeting Biden campaign staff & Iran APT targeting Trump campaign staff with phishing,” Huntley tweeted. “No sign of compromise. We sent users our govt attack warning and we referred to fed law enforcement.”

Google’s government attack warning alerts users that hackers may be attempting to steal their password, and urges them to sign up for Google’s Advanced Protection Program. Huntley wrote in a blog post in 2018 that an “extremely small fraction of users” will get this alert, but that if a user does receive one, they should “take immediate action” to secure their account.

A spokesperson for the Biden campaign told The Hill that they were “aware” of the targeting.

“We are aware of reports from Google that a foreign actor has made unsuccessful attempts to access the personal email accounts of campaign staff,” the spokesperson said. “We have known from the beginning of our campaign that we would be subject to such attacks and we are prepared for them.”

The spokesperson emphasized that “Biden for President takes cybersecurity seriously, we will remain vigilant against these threats, and will ensure that the campaign’s assets are secured.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment on the attempted targeting.

Both Iran and China are considered, alongside Russia and North Korea, to be top threats to the U.S. in cyberspace. Tensions between the U.S. and China have spiked during the COVID-19 outbreak, while tensions with Iran reached a boiling point in January following the targeting and killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

The phishing emails are not the first efforts to target presidential campaigns this year.