The technology giant also confirmed reports that Iran had targeted President Trump’s campaign, underscoring the persistent threat of hackers in the 2020 election.
Chinese hackers are targeting the personal email accounts of campaign staff members working for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Google said on Thursday, while confirming previous reports that Iran has targeted President Trump’s campaign.
In disclosing the attempts, Google’s chief of threat analysis, Shane Huntley, who oversees the tracking of state-sponsored, sophisticated hacking, said there was no evidence yet that the Chinese hackers had pierced Mr. Biden’s campaign. The attacks appear to be conventional spear-phishing attacks, similar to the Russian breach of John D. Podesta’s personal emails in 2016, when he was Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.
But Google’s announcement on Thursday underscored the fact that during the 2020 election, Russian hackers, who combined hacking and disinformation in the last presidential election cycle, will not be alone. Even before Google’s announcement — posted on Twitter — security experts warned that Russian hackers would be joined by those from other American adversaries.
Mr. Biden’s campaign said in a statement that “we are aware of reports from Google that a foreign actor has made unsuccessful attempts to access the personal email accounts of campaign staff.”
It added: “We have known from the beginning of our campaign that we would be subject to such attacks and we are prepared for them. Biden for President takes cybersecurity seriously, we will remain vigilant against these threats, and will ensure that the campaign’s assets are secured.”
The motivations for such attempts could be many. China already has major espionage assets aimed at the Trump administration and other parts of the United States government, so going after the president’s campaign infrastructure may be redundant — and less interesting than anything that can be elicited from the Defense Department, the State Department or American intelligence agencies.
