Iranian hackers breached Boltons email, DOJ says

CyberScoop reports that suspected Iranian state-linked hackers infiltrated former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton's personal email account in 2021 and threatened to leak its contents, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

The indictment, which charges Bolton with mishandling classified information, details how a "cyber actor believed to be associated with the Islamic Republic of Iran" accessed his emails and later sent threats comparing the potential leak to Hillary Clinton's 2016 email scandal.

Bolton's representative alerted the FBI about the intrusion in July 2021 and confirmed that Bolton later deleted the hacked emails. Prosecutors allege he failed to disclose that he had used the compromised account to share classified information with relatives, which the hackers may have obtained.

The case follows heightened political tension, with the indictment surfacing after former President Donald Trump publicly called for the prosecution of political opponents. Bolton has denied any wrongdoing, calling the charges "baseless."