Tennessee Senate Campaign Sees Possible Hack

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crime | hacking | security

Phil Bredesen’s campaign for US senate sees a hacker’s hand in email messages

The mid-term US election season is underway and it seems that hackers are already busy. Phil Bredesen (D), the former governor of Tennessee, is running for senate in that state. And his campaign has notified the FBI that they think a hacker has already been in their network.

Signals of a hack came from a phishing email asking for money: a message sent from an email account almost identical to that of the campaign’s media buyer. In itself, that’s not evidence of a hack, but there were details about the message, including dates of upcoming media purchases that indicate the sort of inside knowledge available through hacked servers or accounts.

There is significant concern among US law enforcement and intelligence officials that Russian hackers, who were active during the 2016 election, will seek to disrupt and influence the 2018 election, as well. While the Bredesen campaign evidence points to criminal, rather than political, motivation, it does indicate that political campaigns should still be paying more attention to computer security than many seem prepared to pay.

The FBI declined the opportunity to comment, as is normal for on-going investigations.