Trump and Biden election officials had their Gmails ‘targeted by Chinese and Iranian hackers’, according to Google

Hackers linked to China and Iran targeted Gmail accounts of staff working for the presidential campaigns of President Trump and his presumed rival Joe Biden, Google has claimed.

A senior security executive at the search giant’s Threat Analysis Group, which tracks state-sponsored hacking and digital espionage efforts, tweeted that US federal law enforcement agencies were notified and campaigners warned after evidence of “advanced persistent attacks” (APT) by hacking groups linked to the two countries was discovered.

The attempts reportedly came in the form of phishing emails of the type Google has identified as the weapon of choice for the two APT syndicates.

Phishing is a common technique that attempts to breach a target’s system by conning the recipient into clicking links in order to instal malicious computer code that can be used to extract information.

There was “no sign” that the accounts had been compromised, according to Google cybersecurity chief Shane Huntley, but he revealed no details about the type of information that was trying to be stolen.

Claims of Chinese attempts to target campaign staff of Mr Biden and Iranian attempts against those working for Mr Trump come after Russian-backed hackers sought to obtain sensitive political materials during the 2016 US presidential election, a claim denied by the Kremlin.

Mr Huntley, director of Google's San Francisco-based Threat Analysis Group, said: “If you are working on a campaign this election cycle, your personal accounts may be targeted.

“Use the best protection you can. Two-factor authentication or Advanced Protection really can make a difference.”

The Democratic Biden campaign said in a statement: “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.”

While the Republican campaign for Mr Trump said: “The Trump campaign has been briefed that foreign actors unsuccessfully attempted to breach the technology of our staff.