Iranian hackers sought to disrupt the presidential election by stealing sensitive information from Donald Trump an offering the material to the campaign of his rival, Joe Biden.
In August, Microsoft revealed that hackers tied to the Iranian government have been trying to influence the US presidential election for months.
Wednesday, the FBI claims the cyber-terrorists sent unsolicited emails to people connected to the Democrat president in an effort to interfere.
Trump spoke out about the hack attempt at his rally on Long Island Wednesday: ‘Biden is working with Iran and Iran doesn’t exactly like me because they were ready to make a deal, except we had an election that was rigged and stolen’.
There’s no evidence that any of the recipients responded, officials said, preventing the hacked information from surfacing in the final months of the closely contested election.
Congressman Jim Himes, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence committee, argued that anyone ‘who excused’ Trump’s behavior regarding alleged Russian interference in elections ‘should sit this one out’.
The hackers sent emails in late June and early July to people who were associated with Biden’s campaign before he dropped out.
Iranian hackers sought to interest President Joe Biden ‘s campaign in information stolen from rival Donald Trump ‘s campaign
Wednesday, the FBI claims the cyber-terrorists sent unsolicited emails about Donald Trump to people connected to the Democrat president in an effort to interfere
The emails ‘contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump´s campaign as text in the emails,’ according to a statement from the FBI and various other federal agencies.
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BREAKING NEWS
Bombshell evidence released of Iran's efforts to sway US election – including anti-Trump news
The announcement is the latest effort to call out what officials say is Iran´s brazen, ongoing work to interfere in the 2024 election, including a hack-and-leak campaign that the FBI and other federal agencies linked last month to Tehran.
The Justice Department has been preparing charges in that breach.
The FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have said the Trump campaign hack and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign are part of an effort to undermine voters´ faith in the election and to stoke discord.
The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 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 leaked confidential material from inside the Trump campaign.
So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what it received.
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.
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
There’s no evidence that any of the recipients responded, officials said, preventing the hacked information from surfacing in the final months of the closely contested election
The document was dated February 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.
Researchers for Microsoft disclosed in August they found multiple Iranian groups peddling polarizing messages and inflammatory posts about controversial politically-divisive issues.
According to Microsoft’s newest threat intelligence report, cybercriminals have been using covert news sites that cater to voter groups on opposing ends of the political spectrum to further alienate both sides.
One of such site that is built for Democratic Party supporters called Nio Thinker insults former President Donald Trump by calling him an ‘opioid-pilled elephant in the MAGA China shop’ and a ‘raving mad litigiosaur’.
The website, which began publishing in late October 2023, also releases numerous sarcastic and long-winded articles that berate Trump.
On the other hand, another website named Savannah Time claims to be a ‘trusted source for conservative news in the vibrant city of Savannah’.
A website built for Democratic Party supporters called Nio Thinker insults former President Donald Trump by calling him an ‘opioid-pilled elephant in the MAGA China shop’ and a ‘raving mad litigiosaur’
The website, which began publishing in late October 2023, also releases numerous sarcastic and long-winded articles that berate Trump
This website tends to heavily focus on Republican politics and LGBTQ issues – particularly gender re-assignment, a topic of great controversy among the right.
Evidence discovered by the company suggests that these sites have been using AI-enabled services to plagiarize some of their content from US publications.
Microsoft did not name the publications in its report. Notably, the report did not suggest that any attacks had been made on Vice President Kamala Harris.
Apart from this, the report also noted that an Iranian group connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had previously attempted to break into email account of campaign officials.
Researchers said Iranian groups that have historically tried to undermine trust in the electoral system had been preparing to launch influence operations since March 2024.
The findings are the latest evidence that foreign governments are conducting clandestine operations ahead of US elections in November.
Back in 2020, two Iranian men had impersonated members of the right-wing Proud Boys group as part of a voter intimidation effort, according to the FBI. They were later charged for their involvement.
In the same election year, Iranian hackers had breached a website used by a municipal government in the US to publish election results.
The attackers were caught before carrying out any nefarious activity, US cybersecurity officials later clarified.