Trump's Campaign Website Temporarily 'Seized,' Hackers Threaten to Release 'Classified Information'
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Donald Trump's campaign website was briefly hacked on Tuesday.
Tuesday afternoon, the "About" page for Trump's website was seemingly taken over by cryptocurrency scammers claiming to have "classified information" about the Trump administration and the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)'s origins.
"this site was seized," the "About" page read, as captured in a screen grab by PEOPLE.
"the world has had enough of the fake news spreaded [sic] daily by president donald j. trump," the hackers' message continued. "it is time to allow the world to know truth."
The message went on to claim that "multiple devices" had been compromised, giving the hackers "full access to trump and relatives."
"most internal and secret conversations strictly classified information is exposed proving that the trump-gov is involved in the origin of the corona virus," the message said. "we have evidence that completely discredits mr trump as a president. proving his criminal involvement and cooperation with foreign actors manipulating the 2020 elections. the US citizens have no choice."
Getty Images Donald Trump
The hackers then provided two Monero addresses, one for "yes, share the data" and one for "no, do not share the data."
The message ended by saying that they would complete the action associated with the Monero address that had received the most cryptocurrency funds.
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
The website was quickly restored.
In a statement Tuesday evening, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said no sensitive data was actually put at risk.
"Earlier this evening, the Trump campaign website was defaced and we are working with law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the attack," Murtaugh said in a statement on Twitter. "There was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site. The website has been restored."
