Cryptocurrency scammers attacked Trump campaign website, threatened to leak sensitive information

President Trump’s campaign website was partially hacked for a crypto scam on Tuesday night. Despite the hackers’ claims of access to proof that, “the trump-gov is involved in the origin of the coronavirus,” there was no disclosure of sensitive data. The site returned to normal shortly after but it’s still unknown how hackers gained access to the site. The content linked to two Monero addresses, one for the data reveal and the other for keeping it hidden. Users were asked to deposit money into the wallet of their choice for their preferred results. Whether the hack was an attempt to intervene in presidential elections, or hackers were desperately looking to make a fast buck remains to be seen. Some commentators noted that English probably is not the hackers’ first language.

Why it matters: There are many, many ways to use the internet to defraud people, and with such an emotional election in the USA, it is almost certain that hackers would use the event to try and make a profit. This scam looks to have been underdeveloped, and thankfully it doesn't seem to have been as successful as the Twitter hack from earlier this year. Unfortunately, hacking is going to be part of any system where valuable information can be transferred easily, and people are blinded by their emotions. The likelihood of the Trump administration being the cause of COVID-19 is low, which makes this event look even more like bad actors taking advantage of strong political views.