Microsoft Warns Of Increasing Cyber Attacks Ahead Of US Elections

Preparation for the US presidential election (doc. Microsoft)

JAKARTA - The presidential election of the United States (US) will take place in November. In these times, cyber attacks will be very high and target presidential candidates who will compete.

This attack was disclosed by Microsoft in a blog post. Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Customer Security & Trust Tom Burt. Both said there were a number of hacker attacks coming from Russia, China and Iran in the coming weeks.

Microsoft says most attacks have been detected and blocked. But cyberattacks will still escalate as Donald and Joe Biden campaign.

"In recent weeks, Microsoft has detected cyber attacks targeting people and organizations involved in the upcoming presidential election, including unsuccessful attacks on people linked to the Trump and Biden campaigns," said Tom Burt, Monday, September 14.

"The attacks we announced today make it clear that these foreign groups have stepped up their target efforts, namely the 2020 elections as anticipated, and this attack is in line with what the US government and others have reported," he continued.

According to Microsoft, the perpetrators are also actively attacking a number of institutions and organizations, consultants, and political parties in Europe. Microsoft identified the attack as coming from a group based in Russia and China.

"This group has attacked high-profile people associated with the elections, including those associated with Joe Biden and prominent leaders in the international community," he explained.

Meanwhile, an Iran-based group dubbed Phosphorus has targeted the personal accounts of people linked to the Trump campaign, according to Microsoft. "The majority of these attacks are detected and stopped by the security tools built into our products."

"We have notified directly those who were targeted or compromised so that they can take action to protect themselves," he added.

Since the 2016 US presidential election, cybersecurity issues have been in the spotlight, especially after Russian hackers broke into and leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign team. Since then, government agencies such as the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have stepped up their efforts to guard elections against hackers and online disinformation.