Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s team has adopted encrypted mobile devices and secure laptops to protect its staff, following several successful Iranian hacks and two assassination attempts targeting the former president.
The campaign recently acquired a batch of these devices from Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Green Hills Software, a company that develops a proprietary security-focused operating system already used by several U.S. agencies, according to the company’s CEO. company, Dan O’Dowd, who spoke to Reuters.
Although Green Hills Software announced its agreement with the campaign in an October 1 press release, media coverage of the news has been minimal.
O’Dowd, the company’s CEO and president, said his company provided the technology after approaching the campaign through mutual relationships. “Ensuring the integrity of the democratic process is paramount,” O’Dowd said in the statement.
A Trump campaign spokesperson declined to comment. However, a source close to campaign operations, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said leaders had made significant security improvements to their hardware but were unsure of the supplier implied.
Asked about cyber security at the Harris campaign, spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said: “Generally speaking, we have strong cybersecurity measures in place and staff are trained to be vigilant against potentially malicious content . »
The decision to upgrade the Trump campaign’s devices comes after months of targeted Iranian cyberespionage that compromised internal communications and documents. The move was also prompted by physical threats against Trump, with concerns that hackers or spies could monitor staff and use that information to target individuals, another person familiar with the matter said.
In an interview, O’Dowd explained that a select group of campaign staffers already use these devices, which are more resilient to remote cyberattacks.
The Iranian hacking group responsible for the breach earlier this summer, known as APT42 in the security research community, is known for deploying advanced malware on mobile phones that can record conversations and activate cameras remotely. APT42 is also known to spy on individuals who are then physically threatened by agents linked to Iranian intelligence services, according to previous reports. Reuters reports based on a series of attacks on Iranian dissidents.
Publicly available procurement documents show that Green Hills Software is a federal contractor, supplying its operating system to several military branches, where it is integrated into various platforms, including weapons systems. The company’s wearable product is also used by FBI field offices.