Donald Trump’s campaign website hacked and defaced with explosive claims

Hackers who claim to have criminal dirt on Donald Trump have taken over the President’s website and posted an explosive message.

Donald Trump’s campaign website was taken over by hackers who claimed to have evidence that “completely discredits” him as a president.

In a message on the site, the hackers claimed to have proof of his “criminal involvement” in the manipulation of the 2020 election.

They claimed the world “has had enough of fake news spreaded [sic] daily by the president … it is time to allow the world to know the truth.”

“Strictly classified information is exposed proving that the Trump gov is involved in the origin of the coronavirus,” the post read.

“We have evidence that completely discredits mr trump as a president, proving his criminal involvement and co-operation with foreign actors manipulating the 2020 elections. the US citizens have no choice.”

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The message was taken down after 20 minutes.

The message continued: “Today is the day – the whole world can decide if they want to known the truth or not.”

The cyber-attackers then posted a link to two cryptocurrency wallets, associated with Monero, a “private, secure, and untraceable digital” cryptocurrency.

Those reading the message were asked to make a donation to either one of the pages to cast a “vote” on whether the hackers should either share the data they claim to have on the president, or not to share it.

They said their next actions will be determined by the wallet with the most money in it.

“After the deadline we will compare the funds and execute the will of the world, in both cases we will inform you,” the post read.

The website was back to normal 20 minutes later.

Trump 2020 Communications Director Tim Murtaugh said no sensitive data had been compromised.

“Earlier this evening, the Trump campaign website was defaced and we are working with law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the attack,’ he wrote.

There was no exposure to sensitive date because no of it is actually store on the site. The website has been restored.”

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Earlier this evening, the Trump campaign website was defaced and we are working with law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the attack. There was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site. The website has been restored.

— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) October 28, 2020

Tech Crunch reports that getting people to irreversibly send cryptocurrency to a mysterious address is a common scam, usually relying on brief appearances on high visibility platforms like celebrity Twitter accounts.

“There is no indication that this attack was in any way state-sponsored, and while it strikes a partisan tone, one can hardly say that this is a very coherent attack against the Trump platform,” tech expert Devin Coldewey wrote.

He said campaign and other elections-related websites are high-value targets for hackers because they are associated with entities like Mr Trump but are not as secure as official sites like whitehouse.gov.

“Though the diction seems not to be that of a native English speaker, there is no other positive evidence that the hack is of foreign origin,” he said.

The hacking comes less than a week after a Dutch researcher allegedly gained access of Trump’s Twitter account after correctly guessing his password as being “maga2020!”.

Victor Gevers, a security expert, said he was able to access the President’s direct messages, could author tweets in his name and change his profile.

Mr Gevers – who previously managed to log into Mr Trump’s account in 2016 – apparently gained access by guessing Trump’s password on only his fifth attempt.

“I expected to be blocked after four failed attempts. Or at least would be asked to provide additional information,” Mr Gevers told De Volkskrant.

Mr Trump recently told reporters: “Nobody gets hacked. To get hacked you need somebody with 197 IQ and he needs about 15 per cent of your password.”

Originally published as Donald Trump’s campaign website hacked and defaced with explosive claims