The Robert hack group is attracting attention when it claimed to have about 100 gigabyte emails stolen from close figures of US President Donald Trump.
Among the victims were White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, lawyer Lindsey Halligan, advisor Roger Stone and Stormy Daniels - who openly confronted Mr. Trump.
The Hacker group, nicknamed Robert, appeared in the final stages of the 2024 US presidential election, when it published a series of leaked emails from Trumps assistants to the press. Some of the emails were confirmed by Reuters, including the financial deal between Trump and the lawyers of Robert F Kennedy Jr., who would later serve as health secretary in the new administration.
The leaked documents also contained information about Republican campaign activities and settlement negotiations with Daniels. However, the incident did not change the election results Mr. Trump won.
The US Department of Justice in September 2024 accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps of being behind this cyber attack campaign.
After Trump's re-election, the hackers said they would not conduct further leaks. Last May, they also announced that they had "retired". But after a 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran and US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, the group suddenly reappeared. In recent messages, they said they are selling stolen emails and wanted media outlets to spread the news.
The US Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) has not commented. Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel affirmed: Whoever is involved in a national security breach will be investigated and prosecuted at the highest level by law.
Scaled Frederick Kagan from the American Institute of Business said Iran may be looking for revenge after the recent damage in the conflict. According to him, the email dissemination could be a symmetrical attack to avoid provoking military reactions from the US and Israel.
Although it did not cause major incidents during the conflict, Iranian hackers are still considered a worrying threat to US infrastructure and businesses. US cybersecurity officials have warned organizations to increase vigilance against the risk of being attacked.
