The US government has confirmed Donald Trump’s claim that Iran tried to hack his presidential campaign and said Tehran has also targeted the Biden-Harris operation.
In a joint statement issued on Monday, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said it had seen “increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle”.
Hackers had specifically targeted presidential campaigns, the statement continued, while also trying to influence the American public.
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The agencies added: “This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC [intelligence community] attributes to Iran.
“The IC is confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties.
“Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the US election process.”
Donald Trump’s campaign has blamed Iran for leaks. Pic: Reuters
Google has said the same hackers targeted the Biden-Harris campaign before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race for the White House, but it’s not clear whether they succeeded.
Ms Harris’s campaign previously said it had no indication it was hacked.
Tehran’s UN mission to the US has called the claims “unsubstantiated and devoid of any standing”, saying it “harbours neither the intention nor the motive to interfere with the US presidential election”, and urging Washington to supply evidence.
Three American news outlets – Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post – said this month they had received documents that appeared to have been stolen from the Trump campaign.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign claimed the documents were part of an Iranian ‘hack-and-leak’ operation to hurt the Republican nominee’s election chances.
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Last week, the FBI announced it was investigating attempts to hack both parties.
On Wednesday, Google published a detailed report on an Iranian hacker group, saying it targeted both the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns in May and June.
The US previously blamed Iran for the largest influence operation before the 2020 presidential election, in a convoluted scheme which involved sending harassing emails to Democrats in Florida to make it seem as if they were being threatened by the Proud Boys, a far-right group that supports Mr Trump.
The agencies said: “Protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign influence or interference is our priority.
“As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible.
“We will not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections, including the targeting of American political campaigns.”
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The FBI continues to investigate, the agencies added.