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Trump Campaign Website Briefly Hacked and Defaced With Conspiracy Theory

Donald Trump’s campaign website appeared to have been briefly hacked on Tuesday afternoon, as the site’s “About” page content was replaced with a bizarre statement accusing the Trump administration of involvement “in the origin of the corona virus [sic].”

The message also claimed without evidence that the hacker or hackers had gained “full access” to devices owned by Trump family members, that they had obtained “internal and secret conversations,” and that they had “evidence… proving his criminal involvement and cooperation with foreign actors manipulating the 2020 elections.”

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. But in a statement Tuesday night, communication director Tim Murtaugh told CNN: “Earlier this evening, the Trump campaign website was defaced & 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.”

In what may indicate the hackers’ actual intent, according to TechCrunch the messages also included two addresses for Monero, a difficult-to-trace cryptocurrency favored by scam artists and criminal organizations. In fact, Monero was linked to an astonishing 44% of all ransomware attacks in 2018, and is also used by white nationalist groups that have been otherwise deplatformed. In recent years, Hackers have also compromised several Android based apps to embed malicious codes linked to Monero.

Also Read: Trump Grouses About Fox News for Airing Obama's 'Fake Speech for Biden'

It’s unclear just how long the hacked content remained on the Trump campaign website, but as of the publication of this article, the campaign website had been restored to normal.

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

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