The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), alongside other intelligence agencies, announced on Wednesday that Iran distributed information stolen from former President Trump’s campaign to both the Biden campaign and various media outlets.
FBI, alongside Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), shared additional evidence of Iran’s efforts to disrupt U.S. elections by sending unsolicited emails to individuals linked to President Joe Biden’s campaign, featuring stolen content from Trump’s campaign, according to the press release. Since June, Iranian hackers have persisted in distributing this stolen, sensitive material to U.S. media outlets.
“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,” the agencies said in a statement.
“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 U.S. media organizations.”
Although it remains unclear if any of the shared information has been published, the agencies described these actions as part of Iran’s broader strategy to “stoke discord and undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral process.” The government of Iran, which has previously denied involvement in such cyber activities, has not yet commented on these allegations, The Hill reported.
The Trump campaign said in August a hostile foreign entity hacked its internal communications, and cited a Microsoft report. The report indicated that hackers linked to the Iranian armed forces targeted a senior official from a presidential campaign with a spear-phishing email in June, and these Iranian operatives began leaking the stolen data to Politico by late July, according to the outlet.
Key figures in the Trump campaign, including senior advisor Susie Wiles, were identified as targets of this Iranian hacking effort, The Washington Post reported. The FBI also confirmed that Iran attempted but failed to breach the Biden-Harris campaign, The Hill reported.
In a briefing call with reporters, the ODNI said that Iran has ramped up its attempts to influence the U.S. election, using tactics that include disseminating disinformation on social media and seeking to amplify societal divisions, The Hill reported.
The FBI, ODNI and CISA did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
