Trump and Biden campaigns targeted by state-backed hackers

State-backed hackers have targeted the campaigns of both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, according to Google.

The cyber criminals originating in China had targeted the Biden campaign, while Iranian hackers had targeted Trump, the tech company said.

Google warned that campaign staff could have their emails targeted and should use additional security measures to protect them.

The company confirmed the findings after the director of its Threat Analysis Group, Shane Huntley, disclosed the attempts Thursday on Twitter.

“No sign of compromise," said Mr Huntley.  "We sent users our government attack warning and we referred to fed law enforcement. If you are working on a campaign this election cycle, your personal accounts may be targeted."

The Biden campaign said: “We are aware of reports from Google that a foreign actor has made unsuccessful attempts to access the personal email accounts of campaign staff. We have known from the beginning of our campaign that we would be subject to such attacks and we are prepared for them.”

The warning comes after the 2016 Presidential election was targeted by disinformation and manipulation by Russian state actors.

The emails of John Podesta, chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, were also compromised in a spear phishing attack, leading to the leak of 20,000 private emails. The breach was later attributed to Russian state hacking group Fancy Bear.

Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, called the announcement "a major disclosure of potential cyber-enabled influence operations, just as we saw in 2016."

Moscow has always denied meddling in the 2016 elections.