US agencies attribute presidential campaign cyberattacks to Iran

Iran is behind a series of cyberattacks targeting U.S. presidential campaigns that aim to “stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions,” according to several leading cybersecurity agencies.

The statement — which came Monday from the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) — specifically attributes the recently announced cyberattack on the campaign of former President Donald Trump to Iranian actors.

The agencies said they have “observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting Presidential campaigns.”

But they added that the intelligence community believes “the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the Presidential campaigns of both political parties.”

“Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. election process,” the agencies said. 

The statement goes on to say Iran has a “longstanding interest in exploiting societal tensions through various means, including through the use of cyber operations to attempt to gain access to sensitive information related to U.S. elections.”

This particular election — between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris — is “consequential” to Iran’s national security interests. 

The FBI said it is working with the victims of the cyberattacks but urged campaigns to take basic cybersecurity steps to protect their systems.

“We will not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections, including the targeting of American political campaigns,” they said. 

The release comes one week since news broke of a cyberattack targeting the Trump campaign. Trump blamed Iran in speeches since the attack, but the FBI has until now only said it was investigating the incident.

Since the announcement, both Microsoft and Google have published reports outlining Iranian attacks on senior government officials in the U.S. and Israel in addition to members of both presidential campaigns. 

The hack coincided with revelations that three major news outlets had been sent files allegedly associated with Trump’s campaign. The news outlets have not published the material — kickstarting a debate about previous elections where material stolen by nation-states was covered by journalists.

On Friday, artificial intelligence giant OpenAI said it took down a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that were generating content for a covert Iranian influence operation.

OpenAI said the operation used ChatGPT to create material focused on the conflict in Gaza, Israel’s presence at the Olympic Games, the U.S. presidential election, politics in Venezuela and Scottish independence.