The Donald Trump presidential campaign has been aware of a hack since mid-August. But the penetration by malign foreign actors is apparently continuing.
Trump’s campaign disclosed the breach in August. Apparently, an Iranian malicious cyber actor posing as “Robert” stole non-public material and shared or tried to share it with US media outlets such as Politico and The New York Times.
“Foreign actors are increasing their election influence activities as we approach November,” a statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency read last week.
“In particular, Russia, Iran, and China are trying by some measure to exacerbate divisions in US society for their own benefit, and see election periods as moments of vulnerability.”
Despite all the fuss, though, the Iranian hack seems to have continued at least until mid-September and might actually be ongoing, a document, which “Robert” shared with the newsletter Popular Information, revealed.
Its publisher Judd Legum said the documents included a research dossier on JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, which matches other publications’ descriptions of the hacked material.
That’s obviously not really new – but the leak by “Robert” also included the campaign’s legal letter to The New York Times complaining about an article that doubted Trump was a successful businessman.
The letter was dated September 15th. This means that the hack might be larger and more recent than previously reported and could still be underway.
Who is “Robert?” According to Microsoft, it’s actually “Mind Sandstorm,” a hacking group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence unit. Researchers said that Trump's campaign was penetrated in June with the help of a spear-phishing email.
In his newsletter, Legum said he chose to not publish or excerpt the materials provided by “Robert” because they had been stolen. Besides, “publishing the documents would be a violation of privacy and could encourage future criminal acts.”
Most importantly, he said that “the stolen materials do not provide the public with any fundamental new insight about Trump or his campaign.”
That’s what other media outlets that are not publicizing the leaked documents have decided, too – even though they enthusiastically covered a trove of embarrassing emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in 2016.
The contrast is huge, and some observers have indeed been unhappy. Nick Merrill, a spokesperson for Clinton’s 2016 campaign, curtly told the Associated Press when asked if he thought stolen materials should be published: “A precedent has been set here.”
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