Iran tried to hook into Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign by sending multiple spam emails with data hacked from Donald Trump’s campaign, the FBI and other US agencies disclosed in a media statement. The hackers, with the aim to influence the US presidential election due in November, sent emails to four people linked to the Biden campaign, but there is no record that any of them opened the emails.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI announced on August 12 that it had opened an investigation into the Trump campaign’s allegation that Iran had obtained and released sensitive documents that were internal to the campaign. One week later, the U. S. intelligence said that Iran was indeed responsible for the cyberattack. Still, none of the Biden campaign team or media outlets used the information that the Iranian hackers shared with them.
The Biden campaign stated the Iranian outreach was “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.” The outreach to the Kamala Harris campaign noted that a limited number of the staffers received the emails and just dismissed them as spam or phishing attempts. The emails were sent and received prior to the time the Trump campaign’s hack became public knowledge and the recipients of the emails have no idea where they came from.
U.S. officials have said that Iran continues to interfere with the election, and hackers tied to Tehran have conducted hacks and leak operations. Iran, however, has dismissed the allegations of being involved in said attacks. In a statement, the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York denounced the allegations as ‘absolutely baseless and beyond the pale.’
The case is one in a series of interactions by foreign actors seeking to interfere with the electoral process in the United States, with intelligence indicating different efforts by foreign actors to alter the voters’ perception. While the efforts during the 2016 election led to accusations that the government did not go far enough in addressing interference by Russia, U. S. authorities have adopted what is seen as a harder line this time around, deploying sanctions, criminal charges, and public statements against vote tampering.
The messages that the hackers sent from Iran in late June and early July were brief samples of stolen, private information about the Trump campaign. I.S. intelligence agencies have stated that both the Trump campaign hack as well as the unsuccessful bid to infiltrate Biden’s campaign are part of a larger campaign designed to sow doubt in the election.
Trump’s campaign made this revelation after they fell to hackers from Iran on the 10th of August. Politico, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among others, were contacted with the stolen documents, but none provided any information regarding it. Some of the leaked information included were said to include a research dossier on the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee, JD Vance.
This is due to the fact that the Trump campaign has alleged that Iran had been meddling in the election in order to favor Biden and Harris. Spies have reported that Iran sees Trump’s re-election as a threat as his administration pulled out of the nuclear deal, re-imposed sanctions, and killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
Both the cyberattacks and disinformation were mentioned during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, which the chief executives of Meta, Google, and Microsoft presented before the legislators on what they are doing to protect the election against interference. President of Microsoft, Brad Smith, said that October 30th to November 2nd may be the most dangerous time for elections.
