A former Microsoft executive and Trump administration leader issued a stunning warning Saturday for Americans to "buckle up" in this presidential campaign as "someone is running the 2016 playoff" on campaign email hacking.
"Buckle up," Chris Krebs, the first director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency under then-President Donald Trump in 2018, posted Saturday on X. "Confirmed hack & leak of Trump Campaign sensitive documents."
He posted: "Initial response by Campaign suggests foreign sources, coinciding with Microsoft's alert from this past week and the @ODNIgov alert of the week before. Someone is running the 2016 playbook, expect continued efforts to stoke fires in society and go after election systems — 95% votes on paper ballots is a strong resilience measure, combined with audits. But the chaos is the point."
Krebs notably came to the Trump administration from "Microsoft's U.S. Government Affairs team as the Director for Cybersecurity Policy, where he led Microsoft's U.S. policy work on cybersecurity and technology issues," according to his congressional profile.
The Trump campaign told Politico on Saturday that documents in its possession were hacked by "foreign sources hostile to the United States," blaming Iran for the security breach in an election interference campaign.
"On the hack of the Trump campaign, I'm taking this seriously & have it on good authority it's the real deal," Krebs further posted to X on Saturday night. "You should too. I tend to not comment much these days for various reasons personal & professional, but this is important, I have a bit of relevant insight & experience, & there's more coming & we need to be prepared for down the road.
"You might not like the victim here, but the adversary gives zero Fs who you like or don't like. They have their own objectives and guess what, you're the target.
"Take this seriously. But also keep in mind that you're part of the playbook, they want you to either amplify it or doubt it. Take a beat, touch grass as the kids say, & just vote.
"American voters decide American elections. Let's keep it that way."
Krebs noted the Russia election interference operations have been handed down to Iran as the two increasingly cooperative U.S. rivals are aligning in more ways than one.
"Had this one in drafts yesterday, should have sent it!" Krebs wrote on X earlier Saturday as reports of the hack were published by Politico. "Behold the Russification of Iranian info ops! A nasty business; expanding & diversifying attempts to further divide Americans and disrupt democracy.
"Pink slime websites, hacking election officials, and targeting candidates."
Coincidentally, Las Vegas was hosting DEF CON conference with Krebs in attendance as news of the Trump campaign hack surfaced and a Microsoft report on Iran's election meddling efforts was released.
Nicole Tisdale, former White House National Security Council staffer in the Biden administration, was also in attendance, speaking Saturday on election security.
"The idea that hack and leaks are going to happen in 2024 has been previewed and we have our first hack and leak of the Trump campaign today," she told her crowd, Politico reported.
Jake Braun former Biden administration acting principal deputy national cyber director was also at the DEF CON conference, warning of the 2016 repeat.
"If they're going into the more hack and dump type thing in 2016, that's obviously bad," he told Politico at the conference, "and I would hope that both campaigns are against hacking of any campaign so that we don't have a repeat of 2016."
While the Trump campaign was targeted this week, the issue of cybersecurity has bipartisan concerns.
"Foreign interference of any kind to help any party is wrong, and the best antidote is unity in condemning it," Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee's cyber subcommittee, told Politico on Saturday night. "If this is indeed a foreign hack, Donald Trump is lucky he will not be treated as dishonorably as he treated Secretary Clinton in 2016."
Politico reached out to Biden's CISA for comment, along with the Trump campaign. CISA redirected the news outlet to the Biden Justice Department and the DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.