US confirms Iranian hackers attempted to hack Trump campaign. The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have said that Iran was behind attempts to hack the presidential campaigns of both political parties this year.
The US government has officially confirmed former President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran hacked his campaign.
“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting Presidential campaigns,” the agencies said in the statement.
“This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC [intelligence community] attributes to Iran,” the statement continued. “The IC is confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the Presidential campaigns of both political parties. Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. election process. It is important to note that this approach is not new. Iran and Russia have employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and prior federal election cycles but also in other countries around the world.”
Another hacking attempt
Google claimed that the same hackers targeted the Biden-Harris campaign. This happened before President Joe Biden ended his reelection race. However, the campaign of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris denies the information. It has said that it does not indicate a hack.
The agencies said the FBI is continuing to investigate.
“Protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign influence or interference is our priority,” the agencies said. “As the lead for the threat response, the FBI has monitored this activity, contacted victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information to pursue and disrupt those responsible for the threats. We will not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or interfere in our elections, including targeting American political campaigns.”
Iran’s response
Iran’s mission to the United States denied attempting to interfere in the election.
“Such allegations are baseless and lack any basis,” the mission said. “As we have stated previously, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intent or motive to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. If the U.S. government sincerely believes allegations are valid, it should provide us with the evidence, if any, to which we will respond accordingly.”
This month, Politico, The New York Times, and The Washington Post said they had obtained documents stolen from the Trump campaign. A campaign spokesman said the documents were part of an Iranian “hacking and leaking” operation aimed at undermining Trump’s chances in the election. Last week, the FBI announced it was investigating the hacking attempts by both parties.
On Wednesday, Google released a detailed report on an Iranian hacking group. They said Iran targeted both the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns in May and June.
This was the case in 2020, when the US accused Iran of the largest election influence operation ever. Then, hackers sent offensive emails to Democrats in Florida to make it appear they were being threatened by a right-wing group supporting Trump.