Election interference coming up
Microsoft warns Russia, China and Iran targeting US election
BY MAGGIE MILLER - 09/10/20 03:02 PM EDT
https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/515898-microsoft-sees-stepped-up-foreign-cyber-targeting-of-biden-trump
Microsoft on Thursday reported that it is seeing “increasing” cyberattacks originating in Russia, China and Iran targeting its customers, including attacks against political groups and the presidential campaigns of President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Tom Burt, corporate vice president of customer security and trust at Microsoft, detailed in a blog post the efforts by three major foreign hacking groups to target the campaigns, along with other political organizations and individuals.
“The activity we are announcing today makes clear that foreign activity groups have stepped up their efforts targeting the 2020 election as had been anticipated, and is consistent with what the U.S. government and others have reported,” Burt wrote.
These efforts included Russian hacking group “Strontium” targeting more than 200 organizations, political campaigns and parties over the past year, including U.S.-based consultants for the Democratic and Republican parties, think tanks such as the German Marshall Fund and political parties in the United Kingdom.
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A second hacking effort announced by Microsoft on Thursday involved Chinese-based hacking group “Zirconium." Microsoft reported evidence of “thousands” of attempted attacks by the group between May and September, with nearly 150 successful compromises.
Among the individuals targeted unsuccessfully by Zirconium were Biden campaign staffers. The group went after non-campaign emails.
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Additionally, Microsoft has observed continued attempts by Iranian cyber threat group “Phosphorus” to target the personal accounts of Trump campaign staffers. Phosphorus stepped up efforts between May and June to access personal or work email accounts of the staffers.
Microsoft previously put out an alert last year warning of attempts by Phosphorus to target an unnamed U.S. presidential campaign, which Reuters later reported was the Trump campaign. Microsoft took legal action against the group prior to this, filing a court case enabling the company to take control of 99 websites used by Phosphorus to conduct hacking operations.
The assessment by Microsoft was published a month after a senior official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence put out a statement warning that Russia, China and Iran were actively taking steps to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, with Russian actors favoring Trump, and Chinese and Iranian groups favoring Biden.
The Hill
