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Report: Trump campaign was hacked

Hackers have breached computers used by Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign team, according to Reuters.

Hackers have breached computers used by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign team, according to Reuters.

A Trump staffer’s email was originally compromised by malware and subsequently infected at some point in 2015, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed campaign insider and security expert with knowledge of the incident.

At the moment, little is known about the breach. It remains unclear, for example, if the hacker was able to gain lateral access to other campaign computers, which contain separate data.

A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

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Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike — a company that has already scored notable contracts with both the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — was originally named by Reuters as having been hired to provide support to Trump’s camp.

However, Cyberscoop has learned CrowdStrike is not consulting or providing direct support to the Trump campaign. Executives leading the firm have not met with Trump or his campaign as a result of the breach. It is possible, however, that a Trump campaign employee purchased off-the-shelf CrowdStrike products to deploy throughout the campaign’s operations.

A spokesperson for the cybersecurity firm could not confirm the report because: “Unless we get permission from our customers, we can’t disclose who we’re working with, or not, regardless of rumors or speculation.”

Chris Bing

Written by Chris Bing

Christopher J. Bing is a cybersecurity reporter for CyberScoop. He has written about security, technology and policy for the American City Business Journals, DC Inno, International Policy Digest and The Daily Caller. Chris became interested in journalism as a result of growing up in Venezuela and watching the country shift from a democracy to a dictatorship between 1991 and 2009. Chris is an alumnus of St. Marys College of Maryland, a small liberal arts school based in Southern Maryland. He's a fan of Premier League football, authentic Laotian food and his dog, Sam.

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