Iranian hackers breach Trump campaign servers, raising alarm about foreign interference in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
At a Glance
- Iranian hackers reportedly breached Trump campaign servers, attempting to leak sensitive information
- The FBI confirms Iran’s intentions to meddle in the 2024 election, favoring the Democratic Party
- U.S. officials link the hack-and-leak campaign to Tehran, aiming to undermine voter confidence
- The Justice Department is preparing criminal charges related to the Iranian hack
- Meta, Microsoft, and Google have reported similar phishing attempts by Iranian-linked groups
Iranian Hackers Target Trump Campaign
Former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign has reported a significant breach of its servers, with evidence pointing to Iranian involvement. The campaign disclosed the hack on August 10, attributing it to Iranian actors. While no specific evidence of Iran’s involvement was initially provided by the campaign, subsequent investigations have strengthened this claim.
Microsoft reported that an Iranian military intelligence unit sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking campaign official in June. This revelation aligns with the broader pattern of Iranian attempts to interfere with the upcoming U.S. election.
Widespread Hacking Attempts
The Iranian hacking campaign extends beyond the Trump campaign. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, disrupted an Iranian hacking group targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The hackers, posing as tech support on WhatsApp, attempted to trick individuals affiliated with both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump into revealing sensitive information.
“Iran perceives this year’s elections to be particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests, increasing Tehran’s inclination to try to shape the outcome,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the federal cybersecurity agency CISA wrote in a joint statement. “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 hackers’ targets were not limited to political campaigns. Meta reported that the group also targeted “political and diplomatic officials, business and other public figures” in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the U.S., and the U.K.
Attempts to Influence Biden Campaign
In a concerning development, Iranian hackers attempted to engage President Joe Biden’s campaign with information stolen from Donald Trump’s campaign. These unsolicited emails contained excerpts from non-public material taken from the Trump campaign, clearly aimed at interfering with the 2024 election.
Iranian hackers sought to interest President Biden’s campaign in information stolen from rival Donald Trump’s campaign, sending unsolicited emails to people connected to the Democratic president in an effort to interfere in the 2024 election, the FBI and other federal agencies…
— PBS News (@NewsHour) September 19, 2024
Justice Department’s Response
The U.S. Justice Department is taking these threats seriously and is preparing to file criminal charges related to the Iranian hack of the Trump campaign. This action follows a pattern of Iranian interference in U.S. elections, as evidenced by previous indictments.
“This indictment details how two Iran-based actors waged a targeted, coordinated campaign to erode confidence in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and to sow discord among Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The allegations illustrate how foreign disinformation campaigns operate and seek to influence the American public. The Department is committed to exposing and disrupting malign foreign influence efforts using all available tools, including criminal charges.”
The FBI has emphasized its commitment to countering such malicious cyber activity. Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division stated, “The FBI remains committed to countering malicious cyber activity targeting our democratic process. Working rapidly with our private sector and U.S. government partners and ahead of the election, we were able to disrupt and mitigate this malicious activity – and then to enable today’s joint, sequenced operations against the adversary. Today’s announcement shows what we can accomplish as a community and a country when we work together, and the FBI will continue to do its part to keep our democracy safe.”
As the 2024 presidential election approaches, these developments serve as a stark reminder of the ongoing threats to electoral integrity and the need for vigilance against foreign interference in the democratic process.
