The US Federal Police announced that they had opened an investigation, after Microsoft revealed on August 8 that a US "presidential campaign" had been the target of a hacking attempt attributed to Iranian intelligence services. Microsoft did not specify whether this involved the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, but there is now little doubt that it was Republican Party documents that were hacked.

At least three US media outlets − Politico, the New York Times and The Washington Post − received internal documents from Donald Trump's campaign, sent by an "anonymous informant," shortly before the publication of the Microsoft report. The three media considered that the relatively unimportant documents were likely the result of state hacking, and chose not to publish them. The main file received by these media outlets was a 271-page dossier of information on James David Vance, chosen as Donald Trump's running mate, evidently compiled by the party to check Vance's profile before his nomination.

Booby-trapped emails

According to The Washington Post, at least one person close to Donald Trump has been hacked: Roger Stone. The former president's controversial adviser was "informed by authorities that two of [his] personal email accounts had been compromised," he admitted. These accounts were then used to send booby-trapped emails to Republican Party executives, according to the FBI.

According to the American press, the Trump campaign may not be the only one to have been targeted: At least three employees of the Kamala Harris campaign have received booby-trapped emails, which investigators believe to be linked to the same hacking operation. Both campaigns have announced that they have strengthened their IT security measures.

In 2016, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign was severely disrupted by the publication of thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee. The hack was carried out by Russian intelligence services.