In late June and early July, Iranian hackers sent unsolicited emails to people connected to President Biden’s camp. According to a joint statement released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, those emails contained excerpts of materials not available to the public, which were stolen from former President Trump’s campaign.
The feds clarified that there is no evidence that those recipients responded to the sender. In addition, the crooks sent the stolen material to news publications including The Washington Post and Politico.
The Post reported in August that the FBI was investigating an attempt by Iranian hackers to infiltrate the campaigns of both Trump and Biden (now Kamala Harris) using spear-phishing techniques.
The feds found no evidence that anyone from the Democratic Party fell prey to their scheme. But the crooks were reportedly able to take control of an email account owned by Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone, which they used to send more emails containing spear-phishing links to his contact list.
“As the lead for the threat response, the FBI is tracking this activity, is in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible,” officials said in their announcement.
According to the Post, the stolen materials were sent from an AOL account via email signed with the name “Robert.” When asked by the publication, they denied that they were connected to Iranian cyber attackers. While federal officials did not reveal what materials were sent, the Post says they include Trump campaign research on Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, as well as internal survey results.
Trump’s camp is now asking the Harris camp to reveal what materials it received, while news publications have been asked not to publish the stolen information. Harris spokesman Morgan Finkelstein said the Democratic campaign is cooperating with authorities because some of their people were also targeted on their personal emails, but they are not “aware of any material being sent” directly.
Microsoft previously found evidence that a group linked to the Iranian government has created a website that attacks and insults former President Trump. But Iran is not the only country trying to interfere in this year’s presidential election in the US. Microsoft recently reported that Kremlin-linked Russian troll farms are running a misinformation campaign focused on discrediting Harris and her colleague Tim Walz.
These Russian troll farms are releasing inauthentic videos showing the Democratic candidates in a bad light, including a video that used a fake actor to accuse Harris of being involved in a 2011 hit-and-run incident that left a 13-year-old girl paralyzed.