Sep 18 (Askume) – Iranian hackers sent emails containing material stolen from Republican former President Donald Trump’s campaign to people working on then-Democratic President Joe Biden’s campaign , reportedly influenced by TehranPart of a wider effort by the United States .
“In addition, since June, Iranian malicious cyber actors have distributed stolen non-public material to U.S. media outlets associated with former President Trump’s campaign,” the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement.
“This malicious cyber activity is the latest example of Iran’s multi-pronged campaign … to sow discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process,” the agencies said.
He said there was no information yet on whether those recipients had responded. He did not provide further details on the nature of the stolen material.
In August this year, the United States accused Iran of launching cyber attacks against the election campaigns of US presidential candidates and targeting the American public to incite political discord.
Iran denies interfering in US affairs.
On Wednesday, its permanent mission to the United Nations in New York said the latest US allegations were “baseless and completely unacceptable.” “Iran has no motive or intention to interfere in the US election,” the statement added.
The agencies said malicious cyber actors sent unsolicited emails to individuals within the Biden campaign in late June and early July that included material stolen from the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign.
On July 21, Biden withdrew from the presidential race and was replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee .Surveys show that the competition between Trump and Harris is tough.
The Trump campaign said in a statement that Harris and Biden should reveal whether they used hacked materials to “harm” Trump. The former president said at a rally Wednesday night that Iran hacked his campaign to help Democrats and called it foreign election interference.
After the US agency released its statement, a Harris campaign spokesperson said: “We are not aware of any material sent directly to the campaign.” It appears that some individuals’ personal emails have been targeted for spam or phishing.
Tehran also says Washington has interfered in its affairs for decades, from the overthrow of a prime minister in 1953 to the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020 .
