“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle,” said a statement from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees the defense of government computer systems.
The statement confirmed allegations made earlier this month by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign that Iran hacked one of its websites, triggering an FBI investigation.
At the time, Trump said Iran “could only get publicly available information.”
Iran, according to the US statement, has also attacked the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, who will officially accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination at the convention this week.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations issued a statement calling the accusations “baseless and groundless.” As we have previously announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran harbors neither the intention nor the motive to interfere in the US presidential election.
The US statement said Iran had carried out influence operations targeting the American public in an attempt to stoke political divisions and “cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns.”
“This includes recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC (intelligence community) attributes to Iran,” he continued.
He added that the intelligence community is confident that Iranian agents, using social engineering and other means, “sought to gain access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both parties,” according to the statement.
These activities included thefts and disclosures “intended to influence the US electoral process,” the statement added, without giving further details.
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