“We have seen increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle,” said a joint statement from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
These include “recently reported activities aimed at damaging the campaign of former President Donald Trump, which the intelligence community attributed to Iran,” the text continued.
US intelligence agencies also believe that Iranian agents tried to contact “persons with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both parties.”
Donald Trump’s campaign team claimed on August 10 that it was hacked, accusing an agent “overseas” of tapping into its internal communications and stealing them, including a file on J. D. Vance, the party’s candidate for the vice presidency.
News website Politico previously reported receiving emails from an anonymous user with internal campaign documents attached.
Mr Trump’s team immediately made the not-so-veiled hint that Iran was behind the hacking.
On August 13, Ms Harris’ campaign team also said it had been the target of a digital attack from abroad.
Google’s cyber threat analysis team later reported that an Iran-aligned hacker group called APT24 had targeted the two candidates’ campaigns, launching attacks on partners’ private messaging platform accounts and trying to in contact with them through persons who attended the journalists.
Google claims that APT24 is linked to the Revolutionary Guards, an elite body of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces.
Microsoft also released a report on August 9 in which Iran is stepping up its efforts to interfere in the November 5 US presidential election and influence it by setting up websites that spread fake news, launching cyber attacks and hacking.
In their statement, the FBI, ODNI and CISA allege that Iran seeks to “sow discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.”
On August 12, the US administration warned Iran of the consequences of any attempt to meddle in the presidential election, declaring that they have “a number of tools” to make it “accountable” and are willing to “use them” if they see fit. that it is necessary.
“This approach is not new,” he added, accusing Iran and Russia of trying to interfere in the internal affairs “not only of (…) but also of countries around the world.”
Tehran denied the US accusations.
In 2016, thousands of internal internal emails of the Democratic National Committee were also revealed after a hack, bringing to light communications of Hillary Clinton, then the party’s candidate and opponent of Donald Trump.
The tempestuous tycoon, who had won a surprise election that year, was heavily criticized for encouraging the wiretapping of Democratic materials, which he accused Russia of doing to benefit him. Mr Trump flatly denied this.
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