Hackers linked to Russia, China, and Iran are trying to spy on people tied to both U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, Microsoft Corp MSFT.O said on Thursday.
The report came as Reuters revealed one of Biden’s main campaign advisory firms had been warned by the software giant that it was in the crosshairs of the same Russian hackers who intervened in the 2016 U.S. election.
The Microsoft statement highlights how advisers to both presidential campaigns are at risk from digital spies around the globe, as the two candidates face off on Nov. 3 in one of the most consequential U.S. presidential elections in decades.
The announcement by Microsoft’s vice president for customer security, Tom Burt, says the group accused of breaching Hillary Clinton’s campaign emails in 2016 – a Russian military intelligence-linked unit widely known as Fancy Bear – had spent the past year trying to break into accounts belonging to political consultants serving both Republicans and Democrats as well as advocacy organizations and think tanks.
Burt also said Chinese hackers had gone after people “closely associated with U.S. presidential campaigns and candidates” – including an unnamed Biden ally who was targeted through a personal email address and “at least one prominent individual formerly associated with the Trump Administration.”
He added that Iranian hackers – which Microsoft has already called out publicly for attempts to spy on a U.S. political campaign that Reuters identified as being Trump’s – had since tried to log into accounts belonging to Trump administration officials and members of the Republican president’s campaign staff.
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