The US election campaign teams are in the crosshairs of foreign hackers. Now secret services are announcing the results of their investigations – and identifying someone responsible.
US intelligence agencies blame Iran for hacking internal communications from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign team. “We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activities this election cycle, particularly aimed at influencing the American public and cyber operations against presidential elections,” said a joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the US Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI. This also applies to the recently reported activities to “compromise former President Trump’s campaign,” which are attributed to Iran.
Dossier on Vice-Candidate Vance surfaced
Last week, the FBI announced that it was investigating possible hacker access to internal communications from Trump’s campaign team. US media are said to have been given a 271-page internal dossier on Trump’s vice presidential candidate JD Vance. One of the purposes of such dossiers in the US election campaign is to be better prepared for political attacks from the opposing side. Trump’s spokesman spoke of a hack in this context. The campaign team of US Vice President Kamala Harris also announced that it had been the target of a foreign cyber attack.
US intelligence: Iran is trying to stir up discord
The joint statement from ODNI, CISA and FBI now states that the Iranians attempted to gain access to individuals with direct ties to the Democratic and Republican campaign teams. “These activities, including thefts and disclosures, are aimed at influencing the electoral process in the United States.” Iran is attempting to “stir up discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.” The Vance dossier was not explicitly mentioned in the statement.
Iran views the presidential election on November 5 as particularly momentous with regard to its national security interests, warned US intelligence agencies. This increases Tehran’s inclination to “influence the outcome”.
The intelligence agencies further pointed out that the approach was not new. Iran and Russia had used this tactic not only in the US during this and previous election cycles, but also in other countries around the world. “We do not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or disrupt our elections, including targeted attacks on American political campaigns,” they said.
Google with similar findings
Last week, IT security experts from Google also announced that a hacker group close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had attempted to gain access to email accounts of campaign staff for the US Democrats and Republican candidate Trump. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is the elite military force of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The hacker group, known as APT42, is said to have accessed the personal emails of around a dozen high-ranking employees from the Democratic and Republican campaign camps in May and June. At the time, US President Joe Biden was still the likely Democratic presidential candidate; after his withdrawal, Vice President Harris is now running against Trump.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
