US Intelligence Points Finger at Iran in Trump Campaign Hack
(Bloomberg) -- US intelligence agencies said they were “confident” that Iran was behind a recent hack of former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, casting the intrusion as part of an increasingly aggressive effort by the Islamic Republic to disrupt the November election.
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That effort has been directed at both presidential campaigns as Tehran sees American elections as “consequential” for its national security interests, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a joint statement on Monday.
The agencies said those efforts “involved influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns.”
“This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign,” which the intelligence community “attributes to Iran.”
The Trump campaign reiterated previous comments blaming Iran for the hack based on a report from Microsoft Corp.
The Harris campaign said Monday it had been warned in July by the FBI that it was the target of foreign operatives. The campaign added that it was unaware of any security breaches.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations has previously disputed the allegations, which came just weeks after US intelligence officials warned that foreign adversaries — including Iran and Russia — would seek to influence the 2024 election in ways that favor their interests.
Earlier: Campaign Hacks Tied to Iran Draw FBI Probe of Election Risks
Investigators believe that attackers tied to Iran succeeded in hacking Trump’s campaign and gained access to internal documents. The intruders also tried to breach the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden, before his departure from the race, but it’s unclear whether the attempted hacks on Democrats succeeded.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is leading an inquiry into the attempts on both campaigns. News of the probe emerged after a report from Microsoft described efforts by the Iranian government to access email accounts of presidential campaign staff members. Microsoft said the attacks were pulled off by a hacking cell dubbed Mint Sandstorm that’s linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
US officials and cybersecurity experts believe the Tehran government is seeking to undermine Trump’s candidacy after he antagonized Tehran during his first term in office. While president, Trump scrapped an international nuclear deal with Iran, imposed severe sanctions on the country and ordered the killing of Qassem Soleimani, a Guard Corps commander.
“Iran has emerged as an aggressive player in the election interference game,” said Emily Harding, director of the Intelligence, National Security and Technology Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a former CIA analyst. “This is the second presidential election in a row where they’ve decided to meddle.”
In 2020, Iranian operatives operatives impersonated members of the right-wing Proud Boys group as part of a voter intimidation effort, according to the FBI, resulting in charges against two men. That same year, Iranian hackers breached a website that a municipal government in the US used to publish election results, though the attackers were caught before carrying out any nefarious activity, US officials said.
Tehran’s tactic this time — to steal information and disclose it — isn’t new. Russia employed similar efforts in 2016, when a state-sponsored group obtained internal emails from Hillary Clinton’s staffers that were later published by WikiLeaks.
Iran’s activity underscores the need for the online platforms — and their users — to bolster their resilience, the intelligence agencies said. That includes taking extra precautions such as strong passwords and multi-factor authentication, they said.
--With assistance from Michael Shepard, Gregory Korte and Peter Martin.
(Updates with Harding comment, in eleventh paragraph.)
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