Published 06:58 IST, June 5th 2020
Google claims Chinese, Iranian hackers targeted Trump and Biden's presidential campaigns
Chinese state-backed hackers targeted Joe Biden's campaign staffers while Iranian hackers targeted staffers working on Trump's campaign, said Google official
- World News
- 2 min read
In a shocking development, a senior Google security official has revealed that Chinese and Iranian hackers have targeted US President Donald Trump as well as his Democratic rival Joe Biden's electoral campaign. Chinese state-backed hackers targeted Joe Biden's campaign staffers while the Iranian hackers targeted staffers working on Trump's campaign, said Shane Huntley, head of Google's Threat Analysis Group.
Huntley took to Twitter to announce the digital espionage ina bid to warn the users. However, he confirmed of no sign of data compromise.
Microsoft sheds light on 'Phosphorous'
In a similar incident last year, Microsoft had also warned of a threat group dubbed 'Phosphorous'. Microsoft believed the group is associated with the Iranian government and said that Phosphorous had made more than 2700 attempts to identify consumer email accounts in the 30-day period between August and September 2019.
As per reports, the targeted accounts were associated with the US presidential campaign, current and former US government officials, journalists covering global politics and prominent Iranians living outside Iran. Four accounts were reported to have been compromised as a result of these attempts however those four accounts were not associated with the US presidential campaign or government officials, Microsoft had stated. Phosphorous is also known as APT 35, Charming Kitten, and Ajax Security Team, Microsoft had earlier said in its statement last year.
Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter security teams met last year with FBI, Homeland Security and intelligence officials to discuss collaboration in order to tighten the hold against digital espionage and international crimes committed through the digital medium especially focussing to breach the governmental accounts and election threats.
Updated 06:58 IST, June 5th 2020