Foreign hackers are trying to digitally break into people affiliated with Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in order to influence the US presidential election. That said technology company Microsoft in a Thursday statement.
Microsoft has detected many cyber attacks against people and organizations involved in both Trump and Biden’s presidential campaigns in recent weeks. According to Microsoft, the majority of these attacks come from Russia, China and Iran.
Russian hacking group Strontium, also known as Fancy Bear, has carried out more than 200 attacks on campaign members, organizations, political advisers, advocacy groups and think tanks for both parties in the past year.
Strontium was also responsible for the hack on the email server of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. The disclosure of those emails strongly influenced the outcome of the election in Donald Trump’s favor.
A Chinese hacking group, dubbed Zirconium by Microsoft, has carried out attacks on individuals involved in the election. These include an ally of Biden who has been targeted via a personal email address and “at least one prominent individual previously associated with the Trump administration,” Microsoft said.
From Iran, a group called Phosphorus has frequently attempted to infiltrate the personal accounts of people around Trump.
Most of the attacks have been intercepted by security software, Microsoft reports. The company has notified the targets. Trump and Biden’s campaigns are aware of the attacks and say they are not surprised.
The United States presidential election is on November 3.
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