Iranian hackers tried to pass Trump leaks to Biden’s campaign team

In late June and early July, Iranian hackers sent unsolicited emails to people associated with President Biden’s camp. These emails contained excerpts from materials not available to the public that had been stolen from former President Trump’s campaign, according to a joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Federal agencies clarified that there is no evidence that these recipients responded to the sender. In addition, the attackers sent stolen material to news publications, including The Washington Post And Politico.

The publisher reported in August that the FBI was investigating an attempt by Iranian hackers to use spear-phishing techniques to infiltrate both the Trump and Biden (now Kamala Harris) campaigns. Federal authorities found no evidence that anyone from the Democratic Party fell for their plan. However, the criminals reportedly managed to take control of an email account belonging to Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, from which they then sent more emails containing spear-phishing links to his contact list.

“As the lead threat response agency, the FBI has been tracking these activities, has been in contact with victims, and will continue to investigate and gather intelligence to track and disrupt the threat actors responsible,” authorities said in their announcement.

The stolen materials were sent via email from an AOL account signed with the name “Robert.” The publisher. When asked by the newspaper, they denied that they were connected to Iranian cyber attackers. The government did not disclose which materials were sent, The publisher According to the magazine, the data also includes the Trump campaign team’s research on Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance as well as results from internal polls.

Trump’s camp is now demanding that the Harris camp disclose what materials it received, while also urging newspapers not to publish the stolen information. Harris spokesman Morgan Finkelstein said the Democratic campaign team is cooperating with authorities because some of their people have also been targeted for their personal emails, but they are “not aware of any material that has been sent directly to them.”

Microsoft previously found evidence that a group linked to the Iranian government created a website attacking and insulting former President Trump. But Iran is not the only country trying to influence this year’s U.S. presidential election. Microsoft recently reported that Kremlin-linked Russian troll farms are running disinformation campaigns aimed at discrediting Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz. These Russian troll farms have posted fake videos portraying the Democratic candidates in a bad light, including one in which a fake actor accused Harris of being involved in a 2011 hit-and-run accident that left a 13-year-old girl paralyzed.