The US government has officially confirmed former President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran hacked his election campaign.
a joint statement The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said on Monday that Iran was behind attempts to hack the presidential campaigns of both political parties this year.
“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity throughout this election cycle, particularly influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns,” the agencies said in a statement.
“This includes recently reported activities to disrupt the campaign of former President Trump [intelligence community] Attributes to Iran,” the statement said. “IS is convinced that through social engineering and other efforts, the Iranians gained access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties. Such activity, including hacks and disclosures, is intended to influence the US election process. It should be noted that this approach is not new. Iran and Russia have used this tactic not only in the United States, but also in this and previous federal election cycles, as well as in other countries around the world.
The same hackers were said to have targeted the Biden-Harris campaign before Google ended President Joe Biden’s bid for re-election, but it is not known if they were breached. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign has previously said there were no signs it was hacked.
The agencies said the FBI is continuing its investigation.
“Protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign influence or interference is our priority,” the agencies noted. “As the lead in responding to threats, the FBI is monitoring this activity, contacting victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information to pursue and disrupt the perpetrators of threats. We will not tolerate foreign attempts to influence or interfere with our elections, including the targeting of American political campaigns.”
Iran’s UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Iranian state news previously reported that the mission’s representative denied the country’s involvement in trying to hack Trump’s campaign.
“Furthermore, Iran has demonstrated a long-standing interest in exploiting public tension by attempting to gain access to sensitive information related to the US election through various means, including cyber operations,” the statement said.
Three American news outlets – Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post – said this month they had received documents that appeared to have been stolen from the Trump campaign. A campaign spokesperson claimed that the documents were part of a “hack-and-leak” operation by Iran to undermine Trump’s election chances. last week, The FBI announced was investigating attempts to break both sides.
on wednesday Google published a detailed report The Iranian hacking group said it targeted both the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns in May and June.
USA blamed before Iran’s biggest operation to influence the 2020 election, a sophisticated operation to send harassing emails to Democrats in Florida to appear threatened by the Trump-supporting far-right group Proud Boys.