The U.S. intelligence community on Monday formally blamed Iran for hacking efforts targeting former President Donald Trump’s White House campaign, saying Tehran aims to interfere in the 2024 election.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a rare public notification saying efforts to compromise Mr. Trump’s team came from state-sponsored Iranian cyberattackers.
“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns,” the agencies said. “This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC attributes to Iran.”
Iran-affiliated cyberattackers are aiming to get inside presidential campaigns for both major American political parties with the intent to steal and spread internal information, according to the U.S. intelligence agencies.
“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,” the agencies’ statement said. “We will not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections, including the targeting of American political campaigns.”
The agencies said they were also working closely with private sector partners to share information, bolster defenses and disrupt threats.
Earlier this month, Microsoft revealed it saw an Iranian group send a spear phishing email aimed at a presidential campaign, though it did not identify the targeted campaign.
The Trump campaign subsequently said it was attacked and suggested Iranian hackers played a role in stealing and spreading internal documents, which multiple media outlets said they received.
Google said last week it similarly saw efforts to breach both Mr. Trump’s campaign and that of President Biden, before he stepped aside as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Amid the uptick in Iranian influence efforts, the FBI is urging campaigns and election officials to report suspicious activity to their local election crime coordinators in an FBI field office.