Iran to blame for hacks targeting Trump, Biden-Harris campaigns: US intelligence officials

Trump campaign and private investigators said Iran was behind hacking attempts; it is first time US government has assigned blame for attack

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Republican presidential nominee and former US president Donald Trump in York, Pennsylvania on Monday. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Published: 7:13am, 20 Aug 2024Updated: 7:28am, 20 Aug 2024

US intelligence officials said on Monday they were confident that Iran was responsible for the hack of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, casting the cyber intrusion as part of a brazen and broader effort by Tehran to interfere in American politics and undermine faith in democratic institutions.

Although the Trump campaign and private-sector cybersecurity investigators had previously said Iran was behind the hacking attempts, it was the first time the US government had assigned blame for the attack.

The joint statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other federal agencies also indicated that Iran was responsible for attempts to hack Vice-President Kamala Harris’ campaign, saying hackers had “sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaign of both political parties”.

US President Joe Biden with Democratic presidential nominee and Vice-President Kamala Harris. Photo: AP

The goal of the hacking and other activities, federal officials said, was not only to sow discord but also to shape the outcome of elections that Iran perceives to be “particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests”.

“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,” said the statement, which in addition to the FBI was also released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The statement largely confirms the findings of private companies such as Microsoft, which earlier this month issued a report detailing foreign agents’ attempts to interfere in this year’s election, and Google, which separately said an Iranian group linked to the country’s Revolutionary Guard has tried to infiltrate the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen people linked to US President Joe Biden and Trump since May.

Trump’s campaign said on August 10 that it had been hacked, blaming “foreign sources” for distributing internal communications and a dossier on running mate J.D. Vance.