The campaign for re-election of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, in Wisconsin, was the target of a hacker attack that resulted in a ‘hole’ of $ 2.3 million (about 2 million euros), announced the Republican Party of state this Thursday.
According to the Associated Press, the state of Wisconsin said in a statement that hackers attacked and stole Trump’s reelection funds on this important battleground, less than a week before presidential (and November) election day.
“Cybercriminals, using a sophisticated phishing attack, stole funds, altered invoices and committed electronic fraud,” said Wisconsin GOP President Andrew Hitt in the note.
“By committing this crime and in this format, the hackers showed a deep level of familiarity with the party’s operations in this campaign,” he said.
Familiarity included knowing enough about Wisconsin Republican Party partners to falsify invoices from companies, which ended up sending money to hackers and not suppliers, in this case campaign correspondence and hats to Trump supporters.
Hitt said that although the party has lost millions for its campaign efforts, it still hopes to run with “full capacity” to support Trump’s re-election.
The attack resorted to a “business email engagement” scheme, common among hackers who present themselves as an organization’s business partners and request payments on their behalf.
The Wisconsin Republican Party also said it realized the attack on October 22, and notified the FBI the very next day.
Without having yet clarified whether it is a financial or political crime, the organization said it rules out the possibility that hackers have stolen other data.
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