This week, Microsoft announced that the company had uncovered an attempt by hackers linked to Iran to infiltrate the email accounts of those involved in the presidential campaign in the Unites States. A spokesperson for Microsoft stated that a group called Phosphorus tried approximately 2,700 times during a 30-day period to access email information from Microsoft’s email customers. Only four of the attacked accounts were compromised. Microsoft assured that these four accounts did not belong to any particular campaign, and they were not governmental accounts.
Microsoft is going to work with all of the email account holders whose information Phosphorus tried to obtain. Microsoft will attempt to make the accounts even more secure.
Microsoft would not say which political campaigns were specifically targeted. There is some speculation that the Trump campaign was the target due to the recent tension between the United States and the government of Iran. When asked whether or not their campaigns were targeted, the majority of campaigns would not reply. The campaign of Senator Harris did state that it was not aware of any attempt to breach its email accounts.
This is not the first time this year that a major tech company has been forced to deal with election meddling by the Iranian government and its proxies, reports the New York Times. Both Facebook and Twitter have removed fraudulent Iranian accounts that were trying to pose as the campaign accounts of Republicans who are running in Congressional races.
Over the course of the remainder of the presidential campaign, tech and social media companies expect there to be many more attempts to gain information and create propaganda by the Iranian authorities.
Campaigns and tech companies are not just looking at Iran. Due to Russian involvement in the last election, tech companies are keeping a close eye on any attempts by Russian entities to unduly influence any of the upcoming elections.
