Russian hackers attack US elections again

Hackers with ties to Russia, China and Iran are attempting to spy on individuals and groups involved in the 2020 US presidential elections, Microsoft says.

The Russian group that hacked the 2016 Democratic campaign is again involved in cyberattacks, the tech firm said.

Microsoft said it was “clear that foreign activity groups have stepped up their efforts” in the election.

Both the campaigns of President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden are under attack.

Russian hackers from the Strontium group have targeted more than 200 organizations, many of which are linked to US political parties, both Republicans and Democrats, Microsoft said in a statement.

“Similar to what we observed in 2016, Strontium is launching campaigns to collect people’s login credentials or compromise their accounts, presumably to aid in intelligence gathering or disruption operations,” said Tom Burt, Microsoft vice president in charge of customer security. and trust.

The firm said that Chinese hackers had launched attacks on people associated with the Biden campaign, while Iranian hackers had continued their efforts targeting people associated with the Trump campaign.

Most of the cyberattacks had been unsuccessful, according to Microsoft.

The report comes a day after a whistleblower from the US Department of Homeland Security claimed that he was pressured to downplay the threat of Russian interference in the elections, as it “made the president look bad.”