Trump campaign adopts encrypted devices after Iranian hacks, assassination attempts

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's team has adopted encrypted mobile devices and secure laptops to safeguard staff, following multiple successful Iranian hacks and two assassination attempts targeting the former president.

The campaign recently acquired a batch of these devices from Santa Barbara, California-based Green Hills Software, a company that develops a proprietary, security-focused operating system already used by several US agencies, according to the company's CEO, Dan O'Dowd, who spoke to Reuters.

Although Green Hills Software announced the agreement with the campaign in a press release on Oct. 1, there has been minimal media coverage of the news.

O'Dowd, the CEO and president of the firm, said his company provided the technology after approaching the campaign through mutual connections. "Securing the integrity of the democratic process is paramount," O'Dowd said in the release.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign declined to comment. However, a source familiar with the campaign's operations, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the leadership had made significant security upgrades to its hardware but was unsure of the vendor involved.

Asked about IT security at the Harris campaign, spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said, "Broadly, we have robust cybersecurity measures in place, and personnel are trained to be watchful against potentially malicious content."

The decision to upgrade Trump campaign devices comes after months of targeted Iranian cyber espionage 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 core group of campaign staffers is already using the devices, which are more resistant to remote cyberattacks.

The Iranian hacking group responsible for the breach earlier this summer, known as APT42 in the security research community, is notorious for deploying advanced mobile phone malware capable of recording conversations and activating cameras remotely. APT42 is also known to spy on individuals who are later physically threatened by agents linked to Iranian intelligence, according to previous Reuters reports based on a series of attacks on Iranian dissidents.

Publicly available government procurement documents show that Green Hills Software is a federal contractor, supplying its operating system to multiple military branches, where it is integrated with various platforms, including weapons systems. The company's laptop product is also used by FBI field offices.