Google researchers say hackers backed by China recently targeted the Biden campaign while Iran targeted the Trump campaign, but see “no signs of compromise”
Google security researchers say they've identified efforts by at least two nation state-backed hackers against the Trump and Biden presidential campaigns.
TechCrunchZack Whittaker
Context & Ripple Effects
This is Google's first public attribution of nation-state activity against both 2020 presidential campaigns from its own threat research: Chinese-backed hackers probing the Biden operation, Iranian-backed hackers probing the Trump one, and in both cases a clean bill of health — no signs of compromise. It matters because it puts the two biggest email and cloud providers in the position of being the campaigns' de facto early-warning system.
The arc around it runs in both directions. Three months later, Microsoft reported that hackers working for Russia, China, and Iran had escalated attacks on people and organizations involved in the election, confirming the pattern Google spotted was widening rather than isolated [[a:957748]]. And it recurs: Google later tied Iranian group APT42 to fresh targeting of both the Trump and Biden campaigns in 2024, while Chinese state-linked APT31 kept refining its toolkit, including malware staged on GitHub for targeted network intrusions [[a:959063]] [[a:873115]].
First-order effects
Both campaigns' security teams get named adversary attribution they did not have yesterday — Biden staff know a Chinese-backed actor probed them, Trump staff an Iranian-backed one — even though Google found no evidence either operation got in.
Google converts internal threat-intel work into public disclosure, directly shaping how the campaigns and their vendors prioritize defenses heading into the general election.
Second-order effects
Microsoft's parallel disclosure of escalated Russian, Chinese, and Iranian election-targeting turns platform vendors into competing sources of election-security intelligence, raising the bar for who attributes what and when.
Campaign infrastructure — email suites, cloud accounts, staffer devices — becomes the contested surface, pushing political operations to buy security postures sized for state adversaries rather than ordinary phishing.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds across cycles, foreign interference against US campaigns becomes a recurring, expected feature of each election, and big tech threat-intel teams consolidate their role as the primary public attributors — a function no government agency currently performs with the same speed.
Persistent groups like APT42 and APT31 operating across multiple election cycles point toward standing, institutionalized cyber programs aimed at US political processes rather than one-off operations, keeping attribution and response on the agenda for regulators and campaigns alike.
The trend: Nation-state cyber operations against US presidential campaigns are becoming a fixture of every election cycle, with platform security teams like Google's emerging as the fastest source of public attribution.
Recently TAG saw China APT group targeting Biden campaign staff & Iran APT targeting Trump campaign staff with phishing. No sign of compromise. We sent users our govt attack warning and we referred to fed law enforcement. https://security.googleblog.com/ ...
@dnvolz
Dustin Volz on x
“It's important not to jump to conclusions that this is election interference,” @DAlperovitch said. “Targeting of campaign staff is a timeworn tradition.” https://www.wsj.com/...
@grahambrookie
Graham Brookie on x
This is a major disclosure of potential cyber-enabled influence operations, just as we saw in 2016. The part here disclosed by @ShaneHuntley's team at @Google is the cyber-enabled pre-cursor to potential influence operations. It's a necessary reminder, especially to campaigns. ht…
@janinezacharia
@janinezacharia on x
Podesta hack was successful so of course Russia and China are going to hack 2020 campaigns. It's why we wrote guidelines for reporters for this very scenario. It is critical newsrooms prepare so don't repeat 2016 mistakes. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
@sangernyt
David Sanger on x
Worried about the Russians? They may be the lesser problem....With the great @nicoleperlroth https://www.nytimes.com/...
@mikesilver
Michael Silver on x
'Iran, if you're listening... well, you know...' 🤷🏻♂ ️ https://twitter.com/...
@repadamschiff
Adam Schiff on x
Russia interfered in our election in 2016. And they continue to interfere. Google's announcement today tells us they are not the only foreign power to target U.S. campaigns. We must ALL be on guard to protect the 2020 elections. Americans must decide American elections. https://t…
@aaronjmate
Aaron Mat on x
Make room, Russia! It's Iran and China's turn for some good old fashioned foreign interference fear-mongering amid domestic upheaval over domestic injustice. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@samanthajpower
Samantha Power on x
Important, long-dreaded & terrible news: China & Iran-based groups now targeting presidential campaigns w/ phishing. This after intel community warning in November. Trump's history of downplaying foreign interference invites attacks & raises the threat. https://twitter.com/...
@jeneps
Jennifer Epstein on x
Biden camp: “We are aware of reports from Google that a foreign actor has made unsuccessful attempts to access the personal email accounts of campaign staff. We have known from the beginning of our campaign that we would be subject to such attacks and we are prepared for them.” h…
@jeneps
Jennifer Epstein on x
Google says it's recently seen Chinese hackers targeting the Biden campaign and Iranian hackers targeting the Trump campaign, both with attempted phishing. Says there's no sign of compromise. https://twitter.com/...
@joseph_marks_
Joseph Marks on x
Nation state hackers targeting both Trump and Biden campaigns. A preview of a very messy election cycle to come. https://twitter.com/...
@zackwhittaker
Zack Whittaker on x
New: Google says it's detected unsuccessful attempts by both Chinese and Iranian hackers targeting the Trump and Biden presidential campaigns. https://techcrunch.com/...