Trump Campaign Working with Law Enforcement After Bizarre Website Hack
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is working with law enforcement after its website was hacked Tuesday.
“Earlier this evening, the Trump campaign website was defaced and we are working with law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the attack,” campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh wrote in a Twitter post.
“There was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site. The website has been restored.”
Earlier this evening, the Trump campaign website was defaced and we are working with law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the attack. There was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site. The website has been restored.
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) October 28, 2020
The hack was first noted by journalist Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler on Twitter.
.@realDonaldTrump‘s campaign website has been hacked. Doing research for a climate change article and this is what pops up: pic.twitter.com/Kjc2ELSdAV
— Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler (@ggreschler) October 27, 2020
Parts of the campaign website appeared to be taken over by a scam to collect cryptocurrency, Tech Crunch reported.
The hack took place shortly before 4 p.m. and the culprits likely gained access to the backend of the server.
The hacker or hackers inserted a stretch of JavaScript that produced a parody of the notification the FBI uses when it has taken over a website as part of an investigation.
“this site was seized,” the screenshot read. “the world has had enough of the fake-news spreaded [sic] daily by president donald j trump.”
The message also claimed that “multiple devices were compromised” and the hackers had access to “strictly classified information.”
This information included the claim that the “trump-gov is involved in the origin of the corona virus” and other information that “completely discredits mr trump as a president.”
The hackers provided two Monero addresses — a form of cryptocurrency that is easy to send but difficult to track.
One address was for those who wanted the information released. The other was for those who wanted to keep the information secret.
Within a few minutes after the hack, the website was reverted to its original content.
There is no evidence at this time that this was a state-sponsored attack or that it was part of an organized attack against Trump or his campaign.
Campaign and other election-related websites are often targeted by hackers, though Trump himself made headlines last month when he criticized C-SPAN editor political editor Steve Scully for claiming that his Twitter account had been hacked after he was discovered sending a personal message to outspoken Trump critic (and White House communications director) Anthony Scaramucci.
Scully eventually admitted he’d been lying about being hacked.
Trump’s hotel chain has been hacked twice — once between 2014 and 2015 and again between 2016 and 2017, Tech Crunch reported.
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