Washington: In a major accusation, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other federal agencies claimed Iranian hackers sent people associated with President Joe Biden's campaign unsolicited information stolen from his rival ex-President Donald Trump's campaign, marking the latest effort to call out Iran's apparent brazen efforts to interfere in the upcoming elections in November.
Before Biden dropped out of the race and appointed Vice President Kamala Harris in his place, the Iranian hackers sent emails in late June and early July to people who were associated with the President's campaign. The FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint statement condemning Iran's multipronged approach "to stoke discord and undermine confidence" in the US electoral process.
"Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails. There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied. Furthermore, Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to US media organisations," read the statement.
Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. In August, the United States accused Iran of launching cyber operations against the campaigns of both US presidential candidates and targeting the American public with influence operations aimed at fanning political discord. In a statement, the Trump campaign said Harris and Biden should disclose whether they used the hacked material "to hurt" President Trump.
Who received the leaked material on Trump campaign?
The Trump campaign disclosed on August 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. At least three news outlets — Politico, The New York Times, and The Washington Post — were sent leaked confidential material from inside the Trump campaign. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what it received.
The FBI said it will investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible. "Foreign actors are increasing their election influence activities as we approach November. In particular, Russia, Iran, and China are trying by some measure to exacerbate divisions in US society for their own benefit, and see election periods as moments of vulnerability. Efforts by these, or other foreign actors, to undermine our democratic institutions are a direct threat to the US and will not be tolerated," it added.
Politico reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source — an AOL email account identified only as "Robert" — passed along what appeared to be a research dossier that the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen JD Vance. The document was dated Feb 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.
In a statement, Morgan Finkelstein, a spokesperson for Kamala Harris's campaign, said the campaign has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden's team were among the recipients of the emails. "We're not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt," Finkelstein said.
(with inputs from agencies)
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