The US is blaming Iran for a hacker attack on the election campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “More aggressive activities by Iran” have been detected during this election cycle, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Directorate of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the US Cybersecurity Agency (CISA) announced in a joint statement on Monday (local time). They accused Tehran of trying to influence the US presidential election this year.
Iran’s activities also include influence operations targeting the US public and cyber operations targeting the presidential election campaign. This includes the recently disclosed activities related to the Trump campaign, which have been attributed to Iran, the US security authorities said.
US security authorities are “convinced” that Iran used methods to target individuals on both sides of the election campaign. The attempts were aimed at influencing the US electoral process.
Trump’s campaign team announced on August 10 that it had been the victim of a hacker attack. The Trump campaign blamed “foreign sources” for the dissemination of internal communications and a file on Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance. Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung accused Iran of being behind it.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations has now denied the country’s role in the hacker attack. It also called on the USA to provide evidence for the allegations. “Such accusations are unfounded and completely without basis,” the mission said. Iran has neither the intention nor the motive to interfere in the US presidential election.
A new head of state will be elected in the USA on November 5. Both Trump’s campaign team and the team of his Democratic rival Kamala Harris have stated that they have been targeted by hackers in recent weeks. US technology companies have also reported that they have detected such attacks.
