Recently, American intelligence officials have confirmed that the Iranian regime has attempted cyberattacks on the Trump campaign team in an effort to influence the U.S. election and undermine people’s confidence in the democratic system.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) jointly stated in a press release on Monday (August 19th) that Iran conducted cyberattacks on the presidential campaign teams of both parties with the aim of “sowing discord and undermining confidence in our democracy.”
Earlier this month, the Trump campaign team reported that their internal communications were targeted by foreign hackers, with the blame pointed towards Iran. It was reported that the Republican campaign received spear-phishing emails, designed to appear trustworthy to lure targets into clicking malicious links. It is still unclear if any information was stolen in this attack, with Trump stating that the hackers only accessed publicly available information.
Subsequently, the FBI announced that they are investigating the incident.
Despite the Iranian government denying the cyberattacks, American intelligence agencies stated in their Monday release that “we observe increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, especially influence operations targeting the American public and cyberattacks against presidential campaign teams.”
“This includes actions against the former President Trump campaign team that have been recently reported, which the intelligence community assesses to be the work of Iran,” the statement said.
“The intelligence community believes that Iran is attempting to contact individuals directly involved in both party presidential campaign activities through social engineering and other means. Such activities…are intended to influence the American electoral process,” U.S. intelligence agencies stated.
Google also confirmed last week that the same group of Iranian hackers attempted to breach the Biden campaign team before President Biden retired, although it is unclear whether they were successful.
Hillary Clinton’s team also confirmed last week that they were targeted in a spear-phishing cyberattack, which was not successful.
In their Monday statement, U.S. intelligence agencies mentioned that this tactic is “not new” and pointed out that Russia and Iran have used similar methods in past U.S. elections.
“Protecting the integrity of elections from foreign influence or interference is our top priority,” U.S. intelligence officials said, asserting that they will continue to remain vigilant in identifying and responding to such threats.
Last month, the ODNI also issued a security report stating that China, Russia, and Iran are attempting to recruit Americans to spread misinformation and propaganda aimed at undermining democracy, causing division in the U.S., and manipulating public opinion before the U.S. presidential election.