Trump Campaign Website Defaced Briefly By Hackers

Concerns about cyberattacks during the US presidential elections have increased after a security breach of the official website for the re-election of President Donald Trump.

The security breach saw the www.donaldjtrump.com website defaced by an apparent cryptocurrency scam.

“The world has had enough of the fake news spreaded [sic] daily” by the US president, the message on the website briefly (less than 30 minutes) displayed.

Website compromised

The BBC reported that Trump’s campaign team said there was “no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site.”

The website has now been restored.

A screenshot of the defaced website is available here.

It shows a fake message, along with badges of the FBI and US Department of Justice.

The full message reads as follows:

“This website was seized,” the fake message claims. “The world has had enough of the fake news spreaded [sic] daily”

“It is time to allow the world to know the truth,” the text on the website added. “Multiple devices were compromised that gave full access to Trump and relatives.”

The message then claimed it had proof the Trump administration “is involved in the origin of the coronavirus” and interfering in the presidential election and his co-operation with foreign actors.

The message then reportedly asked for cryptocurrency donations in exchange for access to this information.

“The Trump campaign website was defaced and we are working with law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the attack,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told CNN. “There was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site.”

Other hacks

It should be noted that Donald Trump and his businesses have been hacked before.

In 2015 for example, the card processing system at the Trump Hotel Collection, a chain of luxury hotels were hacked.

Then in 2016 the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was hacked by Russian hackers who also managed to steal confidential information including data on Donald Trump that the Democrats had hoped to use against the Republican presidential candidate,

A year later in 2017 fourteen of President Trump’s top staff members, including incoming cyber security adviser Rudy Giuliani, had their passwords stolen and leaked online.