Just after 7 p.m. EST, the About page on Trump’s campaign website displayed a message reading, “this site was seized. the world has had enough of the fake news spreaded daily by president donald j. trump.”
The website reverted back to normal shortly after, but it’s unclear how the hackers got access to the website.
The scammers claimed to have access to information proving “the trump-gov is involved in the origin of the corona virus” and is cooperating with foreign actors to manipulate the election—but there is no evidence the hackers actually retrieved any classified or sensitive information.
The message linked to two Monero cryptocurrency addresses— one to share the information and another to keep it secret—and asked users to deposit money into the wallet corresponding to their desired outcome.
It’s unclear if the hack was a state-sponsored effort or a desperate attempt by actors looking for a quick buck, but the grammar in the message points to hackers whose first language isn’t English.