A staffer working for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign had their email account compromised last year after being targeted in a cyber attack, Reuters reported Thursday.
The unidentified Trump staffer’s email account sent malicious emails to colleagues after becoming infected with malware in 2015, the newswire said, citing multiple sources.
It was not immediately clear if the person responsible was able to use the attack to further infiltrate Republican Party or Trump computers, but the revelation suggests hackers have set their sights on the GOP as well amid reports of a wide-ranging cyber campaign waged in recent months against Democratic officials and organizations.
U.S. intelligence officials have informally blamed the Russian government with recent computer intrusions of the Democratic National Committee and the party’s fundraising wing in the House, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The FBI reportedly broadened its investigation of those attacks last week amid reports that more than 100 private email accounts belonging to Democratic lawmakers and organizations have been compromised by hackers, The New York Times reported.
The Clinton Foundation on Thursday rejected claims that the organization, formed by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, was similarly breached.
Both an insider involved with the Republican candidate’s presidential campaign and an outside security expert confirmed that one of Mr. Trump’s staffers was targeted in an email lack last year, Reuters reported. The Trump campaign has responded by hiring CrowdStrike, the same security firm reviewing the recent DNC reach, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
A different security firm has been contracted to examine email software that has been used by both the Trump and Clinton campaign, another source said.
The GOP hackers have used techniques similar to those leveraged in attacks against the Democratic Party groups, two sources told Reuters.
Cyberattacks against the Republican Party were previously the subject of multiple intelligence bulletins circulated among agencies by the U.S. government, Reuters reported.
The ranking Democratic on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said last week that lawmakers were briefed earlier this month about recent cyberattacks being waged against various Democratic groups and that such attacks “should concern all Americans of any party.”
A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign declined to comment to Reuters, and a Republican National Committee representative did not immediately respond when reached by the newswire.
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