Staffers for a Republican senator who isn’t even up for re-election in 2018 may be the latest recipients of phishing emails sent from foreign would-be hackers, according to a report.
Google warned campaign aides to Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., their email accounts may have been targeted this week by “actors with ties to a nation-state,” the Morning Call reported Thursday.
Legislative staff of Toomey, who was re-elected for a second time in 2016, were not affected by the cyberattack, Toomey’s spokesman Steve Kelly told the newspaper.
“This underscores the cybersecurity threats our government, campaigns, and elections are currently facing,” Kelly said in a statement. “It is essential that Congress impose tough penalties on any entity that undermines our institutions.”
That Toomey’s campaign was in the sights of potential hackers is unusual given he’s a member of the GOP and not facing a re-election bid until 2020. Democrats like Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., are examples of other lawmakers who have been sent similar phishing emails.
While the nationality of those who launched the attack is unknown, Toomey has been a sharp critic of Russia.
In July, Toomey excoriated Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone call with constituents following President Trump’s widely-panned joint press conference with him in Helsinki.
“Vladimir Putin is a bad actor. He should be treated as an international pariah,” Toomey said, according to the Post-Gazette. “They have been engaged in hostile acts with respect to the United States, first and foremost, and our allies as well, and we should be coming back at them very, very hard.”
