Intelligence Community accuses Iran for interfering in 2024 U.S. elections
On Monday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a statement, according to a Kazinform News Agency correspondent, highlighting Iran’s ongoing efforts to exploit societal divisions. These efforts include cyber operations aimed at accessing sensitive information related to U.S. elections.
According to the statement, Iran views this year’s U.S. elections as critical to its national security and has intensified efforts to influence the outcome. This includes more aggressive influence operations targeting the American public and cyberattacks on presidential campaigns.
“This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the Intelligence community (IC) attributes to Iran. 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,” the statement explained.
Protecting the integrity of the US elections from foreign influence or interference is a top priority for the IC. As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible.
“We will not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections, including the targeting of American political campaigns. As an interagency we are working closely with our public and private sector partners to share information, bolster security, and identify and disrupt any threats,” said in the statement.
To recall, on August 10, the Trump campaign accused Iran of hacking its internal communications, which Iranian officials denied. Iranian hackers may have also targeted the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
U.S. intelligence officials expressed confidence that Iranian efforts, including social engineering, aimed to gain access to individuals connected to both major presidential campaigns. They noted that such activities, including data thefts and disclosures, were intended to influence the U.S. election process.
Reports indicated that the Trump campaign received a spear-phishing email, a deceptive message designed to trick the recipient into clicking on a harmful link. The Harris campaign also reported an attempted spear-phishing attack, which was unsuccessful.
