The FBI now says it is investigating the matter, but questions of how or when the case was referred to the agency remain murky,The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch reported.
The episode first came to light on Aug. 9, when Microsoft issued a report noting Iranian efforts to hack an unnamed presidential campaign.
The Trump team said Aug. 10 that it had been hacked, as news outlets reached out for comment about a leak of vetting documents the campaign had prepared on Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), former President Trump’s running mate.
According to reporting from The Washington Post, the Trump campaign was aware of the issue earlier in the summer but did not disclose it to law enforcement.
Both the Trump campaign and Microsoft declined to answer detailed questions from The Hill about any referrals to law enforcement or whether they reported the issue.
The incident reflects the long-held resistance by companies to disclosing when they’ve been hacked, for fear of embarrassment or even liability.
But it’s a step many cybersecurity experts see as crucial, especially given the ongoing efforts by numerous foreign adversaries to interfere in U.S. elections.
“For an individual, for an organization, for a campaign, there’s always the embarrassment of falling victim to something, especially something like spear phishing, because of the human behavior element,” said Kiersten Todt, a former chief of staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
“It’s not about who was attacked from the federal government perspective,” she added. “It’s how did it happen? How can we share this across sectors? That’s the piece that the federal government does so well.”
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
