President Donald Trump’s campaign website appeared to be temporarily seized on Tuesday night and replaced with a message threatening to expose him and his relatives.
According to the Associated Press, Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh said that the website was “defaced” and their camp is working with law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the hacking.
As shown in a tweet from New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth, the hacker wrote in the “About” section of Trump’s website that “the world has had enough of the fake news spread daily by President Donald J. Trump,” below a title indicating that the site had been seized.
Trump’s Campaign website hacked/defaced by someone who is sick of the “fake news spreaded daily” by the president. pic.twitter.com/035neUv7kc
— Nicole Perlroth (@nicoleperlroth) October 27, 2020
“It’s time to allow the world to know truth. Multiple devices were compromised that gave full access to Trump and relatives,” the message continues. “Most internal and secret conversations strictly classified information is exposed proving that the Trump gov is involved in the origin of the coronavirus.”
Though no evidence was given, the source claimed that they “have evidence that completely discredits Mr. Trump as a president, proving his criminal involvement and cooperation with foreign actors manipulating the 2020 elections.”
The brief message ended with: “The U.S. citizens have no choice.”
Murtaugh told the Associated Press that “there was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site.” According to Tech Crunch, it is possible that the hackers were attempting to collect cryptocurrency.
Although it remains unclear just how long this message remained on Trump’s website, it has since been restored to its normal state.