Iranian Hackers Targeted Presidential Campaign, Microsoft Says

SAN FRANCISCO — Iranian hackers have been targeting the email accounts of at least one presidential campaign, as well as those of American journalists and current and former United States government officials, according to Microsoft.

In a report released on Friday, Microsoft said the hackers, with apparent backing from Iran’s government, made more than 2,700 attempts to identify the email accounts of current and former government officials, journalists covering political campaigns and accounts associated with one major presidential campaign.

Microsoft would not name the campaign.

The researchers said the hackers tried to attack 241 accounts and were successful in four cases, using fairly unsophisticated means. In those cases, the hackers appear to have used information available about their victims online to discover their passwords.

The disclosure is the latest evidence that adversaries are stealing a page from Russia’s interference in the 2016 United States presidential election.

In July, Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, told an audience at the Aspen Security Conference that Microsoft had evidence that Russian, Iranian and North Korean hackers have been the most active nations conducting cyberattacks.

Mr. Burt said Russian, Iranian and North Korean hackers had been targeting nongovernmental organizations and think tanks that work closely with U.S. political campaigns.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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