Microsoft alerts US on Russia, China and Iranian hackers targeting US Elections 2020

Washington: US tech company Microsoft has issued a warning saying that hackers with ties to Russia, China and Iran are trying to influence the upcoming presidential elections in the US (US Elections 2020).

According to Microsoft, hackers are spying on people and groups associated with the electoral process. Microsoft claims that Russian hackers groups, which influenced the campaigning in the 2016 presidential elections, have become active once again.

According to a BBC report, Microsoft issued a statement saying, “It is very clear that foreign groups have increased their activism to target the election.” President Donald Trump and his rival Joe Biden are both targeted by campaigning hackers. The statement said that Russian hackers belonging to the Strontium group targeted more than 200 organizations linked to Republicans and Democrats.

Strontium group is also known as fancy beer. It is a cyber attack unit that is allegedly associated with the Russian Army intelligence agency GRU.

Microsoft Vice President Tom Burt said, ‘As we saw in 2016, Strontium, similar to that, has launched a campaign to access people’s log-in records or hack their accounts.

According to the Microsoft, Chinese hackers have started targeting those associated with Biden’s election campaign personally, while Iranian hackers are targeting people associated with Trump campaigning. However, the Microsoft company claims that most cyber attacks have not been successful yet.

Microsoft says Chinese hackers have targeted the personal e-mail accounts of people associated with Biden’s agenda and the account of a former chief officer associated with Trump administration. The group of Chinese hackers known as Zirconium has also targeted people related to key issues such as international issues, educational institutions and policy-making institutions.

Another group of Iranian hackers, known as Phosphorus, tried to access the accounts of some White House officials and Trump campaigners between May and June but failed to do so.

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