Microsoft MTAC — Mint Sandstorm spear-phished Trump campaign with AI-drafted lures
Date: 2024-08
Affected: US political campaign staff
Attack vector: tool-abuse
Category: threat-report
Severity: Critical

Microsoft attributed an August 2024 spear-phishing operation that compromised a Trump campaign account to Iran's Mint Sandstorm (Charming Kitten / APT35). The actor used AI-assisted drafting of pretexts and translations as part of broader 2024 US election interference operations.


Mitigations:

Architectural layers (MAESTRO):