President Donald Trump’s campaign website was hacked and briefly defaced Tuesday night.
For less than 30 minutes, the site displayed an anti-Trump message in which the hackers claimed to have proof that the Trump administration was involved in the creation of the novel coronavirus and that the president is working with "foreign actors manipulating the 2020 elections.” Those behind the cyberattack then asked people to vote by donating Monero, a hard-to-trace cryptocurrency, into one of two funds: “Yes, share the data” and “No, Do not share the data.”
“[T]his site was seized,” the message read. “[T]he world has had enough of the fake-news spreaded daily by president donald j trump. [I]t is time to allow the world to know the truth."
The hackers also claimed to have gained access to multiple devices “that gave full access” to Trump and his relatives.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtagh said there “was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site” and that the campaign is “working with law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the attack.”
The FBI has not commented on the incident.
The cyberattack came a week before the presidential election and five days after top intelligence officials warned that Iran and Russia are working to spread disinformation and had obtained some voter registration data. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said at a news conference Thursday that Iran sent spoofed emails "designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump."