After Donald Trump’s presidential campaign fell victim to a cyberattack, concerns about the security of the upcoming elections have risen, prompting experts and officials to give warnings about the potential future cyberattacks.
What Happened: The news of the cyberattack on the Trump campaign was a hot topic at the DEF CON conference, one of the largest hacker gatherings globally, reported Politico.
Nicole Tisdale, a former director of the White House National Security Council, addressed the issue on Saturday.
“The idea that hack and leaks are going to happen in 2024 has been previewed and we have our first hack and leak of the Trump campaign today,” Tisdale stated.
Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, also warned, “Buckle up,” adding, “Someone is running the 2016 playbook, expect continued efforts to stoke fires in society and go after election systems.”
The Trump campaign has attributed the hack to “foreign sources hostile to the U.S.,” specifically Iranian hackers, based on a Microsoft Corporation report released on Friday.
The compromised data involved international communications documents.
The Biden administration has been on high alert for such efforts, with a report last month from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence warning that Russia, China, and Iran were all likely to interfere in the upcoming election, the report noted.
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Why It Matters: The 2016 U.S. elections were significantly impacted by a series of cyberattacks and foreign interference, primarily attributed to Russian government actors, although Vladimir Putin denied any connection.
Hackers infiltrated the Democratic National Committee or DNC and other political organizations, stealing and releasing a large volume of sensitive emails and data through platforms like WikiLeaks.
Additionally, high-profile individuals within the Hillary Clinton campaign, including chairman John Podesta, were targeted in phishing attacks, leading to the public exposure of thousands of internal communications.
This incident follows a June 2024 DeepMind study revealing that deepfakes of politicians and celebrities are more common than AI-assisted cyberattacks.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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