Shades of 2016 emerged in early August as the Trump campaign acknowledged that the email account of at least one senior staffer had been hacked. Documents from that hack were sent to POLITICO and other news outlets and appear to have included material related to the vetting of Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (OH), as well as Sen. Marco Rubio (FL).
There were indications that there was also an attempt to hack the Biden-Harris campaign.
Trump Campaign Hacked by Foreign Government and Documents Sent to Media
Now, the U.S. government is confirming that Iran was behind the hacks.
The US government has concluded the Iranian government is behind the hack and leak operation targeting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and also attempted to target the Biden-Harris campaign, the FBI and other US intelligence agencies said Monday.
The FBI in recent days briefed the former president on their preliminary findings, after news organizations reported receiving documents believed to have come from an account belonging to a senior Trump campaign official. Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign has said the hackers were unsuccessful in their attempts against the Biden-Harris campaign.
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“The IC is confident that 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 FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a statement Monday.
“It is important to note that this approach is not new. Iran and Russia have employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and prior federal election cycles but also in other countries around the world,” the statement added.
More details have now emerged as to how the hack occurred. The initial point of access as to the Trump campaign appears to have been Trump ally Roger Stone.
In the recent hacking operation, investigators believe the suspected Iranian hackers in June breached the personal email account of longtime Trump ally and political operative Roger Stone, and then used that email account to try to break into the account of a senior Trump campaign official as part of a persistent effort to access campaign networks, CNN previously reported.
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Attribution to the hack was fairly straightforward: The hackers’ techniques matched those of a notorious group affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Some US officials were uncertain that the same IRGC-backed group that did the hacking had leaked the documents, according to two sources familiar with the matter, because the group is not known for leaks. However, investigators studying the AOL account have been able to link its digital infrastructure to the same Iranian hacking group, one of the sources said.
DOJ Charges Pakistani National With Assassination Plot Targeting Trump and Others
Hackers Target Iranian Banks in ‘Massive Cyber Attack’
The conclusion as to Iran’s involvement comes on the heels of the revelation of an assassination plot against the former president by a Pakistani national with ties to the Iranian government.
And, in what might be a case of karmic retribution, Iran recently suffered its own cyber attack — this time of its Central Bank.
With the election less than three months away, we can expect to see more such attempts against the campaigns from foreign actors like Iran.
