Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has confirmed that the FBI has warned her that she had been targeted by a foreign influence campaign, sparking renewed fears of foreign interference in the US election.
The revelation, reported by NBC, came after Donald Trump's campaign claimed it had been hacked in an email phishing attempt suspected to have been carried out by Iran.
The FBI confirmed in a statement that it is investigating foreign hacking attempts against the campaigns.
Harris' campaign insisted Tuesday that its cybersecurity measures had prevented its systems from being hacked.
“We have robust cybersecurity measures in place and are not aware of any security breaches of our systems as a result of those measures,” he said. campaign told NBC.
But the confirmation of the FBI warning evoked memories of the 2016 campaign, when Russia was believed to have hacked the Democratic Party's email system in an attempt to destabilize Hillary Clinton's presidential bid and help Trump. The Russian hack involved handing over files to WikiLeaks, which subsequently published them.
This time, the office said it was investigating efforts to hack the Biden-Harris campaign in the period before Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, effectively handing the Democratic nomination to Harris, the vice president, as well as Trump's. According to the Washington Post.
Three Biden-Harris campaign staffers received phishing emails designed to look legitimate in order to give an intruder access to broader email communications, the Post reported.
It's unclear whether the phishing attempt was successful, and the response from Harris' now-renamed campaign suggested the vice president's staff was confident the campaign had not been hacked.
Instead, the Washington Post and two other US media outlets – Politico and the New York Times – reported last weekend that they had received apparently authentic files stolen from the Trump campaign. A campaign spokesman said on Saturday that the organisation had been hacked in June. It is unclear whether the stolen campaign files were a result of the apparently successful hacking attempt.
The Trump campaign is understood to have not reported the hack to the FBI because of its suspicions about the agency.
The phishing attempt is also believed to have targeted Roger Stone, a long-time Trump ally who is now formally linked to his current presidential campaign.
“I’ve been informed by the authorities that a couple of my personal email accounts have been compromised,” Stone told the Washington Post. “I don’t really know anything more about it. And I’m cooperating. It’s all very strange.”
Last month, U.S. intelligence officials said Iran was trying to sow discord and undermine Trump's efforts to regain the White House. Iran has denied the allegations.
The renewed suspicions come amid speculation that the country's Islamic regime is preparing an attack on Israel in retaliation for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, in Tehran last week.
