FBI Probes Iran's Involvement In Alleged Trump Campaign Hack (image @TeamTrump)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into allegations from the Trump campaign that it was targeted by hackers working for Iran. In a short statement released, the agency said that it is investigating the matter. Trump campaign released the statement one day after Microsoft released a report indicating that Iranian hackers targeted the campaign of an unnamed US presidential candidate in June.

Trump campaign claimed that some of its internal communications have been hacked and suggested it was targeted by Iranian operatives. Politico, the US news website reported that it had been emailed campaign documents including internal research carried out on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance. The website said it had confirmed the authenticity of the documents.

Iranian officials denied any allegations of hacking the campaign. Reportedly, FBI is also looking into whether Iranian hackers targeted the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign.

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A Trump campaign spokesman told that the BBC the documents were illegally obtained by “foreign sources hostile to the United States”.

According to Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center (MTAC), the campaign was sent a spear- phishing email – a message designed to look trustworthy in order to get the target to click on a malicious link. Trump said the hackers were “only able to get publicly available information”.

As per Washington Post report, three staff members of the Biden-Harris campaign were also targeted by phishing emails in the days before President Joe Biden announced that he was quitting the race. The outlet said FBI first opened the probe in June.

In a statement to the media, a Harris campaign spokesperson said that the campaign “vigilantly monitors and protects against cyberthreats, and we are not aware of any security breaches of our systems”.

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Several lawmakers urge FBI to reveal what they found out so far. Adam Schiff, a Democratic Congressman, said that the US intelligence community “moved much too slow to properly identity the hacking and dumping scheme carried out by Russia” in 2016 and “should act quickly here”.