Microsoft announced today that it’s found Russian, Chinese and Iranian hackers attempting to breach computer security systems of candidates and associated groups in this election cycle, the New York Times reports.

While the Chinese and Iranian operations are active, they pale in comparison to the efforts undertaken by groups affiliated with the Russian GRU.  Contrary to Trump campaign claims that China wants Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to win, China has attempted to hijack numerous email accounts of Biden and his associates, but they’ve only tried to hack one account affiliated with Trump associates. 

The Russian GRU affiliates has gone to greater lengths to hide its electronic tracks, including routing their efforts through Tor, a browser designed to conceal the identity and location of the user.  The “Fancy Bear” unit 6,912 email accounts at 28 organizations from August 18th through September 3rd.  No of the attacks were successful.

While National Security Adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, Attorney General William P. Barr and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe have all claimed that China was as great a threat, or even greater, than Russia, the Microsoft report shows that is not the case.

Two weeks ago, Ratcliffe notified Congress that he unilaterally decided to cease in-person briefing for the Democratic-led House on election cybersecurity, claiming he was doing so to reduce the risk of leaks.  Reportedly, he will continue to brief members of the republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee.

Microsoft made all parties targeted in the attacks aware of the attempts.