Microsoft Detects New Cyberattacks That Target the Upcoming U.S. Elections

New cyberattacks from Russia, China, and Iran have been detected by Microsoft. These attacks aim to target people and organizations involved in the upcoming 2020 election.

Tom Burt, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Customer Security & Trust, said they have observed the following:

• Strontium (Russia) has attacked more than 200 organizations – political campaigns, advocacy groups, parties, and political consultants.
• Zirconium (China) has “attacked high-profile individuals associated with the election, including people associated with the Joe Biden for President campaign and prominent leaders in the international affairs community.”
• Phosphorus (Iran) has “continued to attack the personal accounts of people associated with the Donald J. Trump for President campaign.”

According to Burt, security tools built into their products detected and stopped most of these cyberattacks.

“We have directly notified those who were targeted or compromised so they can take action to protect themselves. We are sharing more about the details of these attacks today,” he said in a statement. He then added, “where we’ve named impacted customers, we’re doing so with their support.”

Burt then assured that they “have and will continue to defend our democracy against these attacks through notifications of such activity to impacted customers, security features in our products and services, and legal and technical disruptions.”

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