Iranian hackers who attacked Trump campaign also hit Utah government
Several state government websites suffered attempted attacks by a group of hackers, who turned out to be the same ones who tried to disrupt the election.
Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader.
The group of Iranian hackers accused of attacking this year's presidential campaigns and successfully breached Donald Trump's, also attempted to hack into several Utah state government sites. NBC obtained a notification from security authorities confirming this.
The group attempted to breach "Utah-based assets, including a Utah county, geologic archival data, oil and gas, and other Utah-related geographic resources," according to the notice from the Utah Department of Public Safety's State Information and Analysis Center picked up by NBC.
The United States and allied governments, as well as Western cybersecurity companies, have long claimed that the hacking group is composed of cyberespionage specialists working for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Its other actions include numerous attacks on Israel's digital infrastructure.
The Utah Department of Public Safety issued the advisory on July 30, but it had not been made public until now. It clarified that the hacker group made a series of unsuccessful efforts from March 2023 to March 2024. The department did not disclose precisely which organizations were targeted. Cybersecurity experts say this shows the scope of Iranian cyberespionage operations.
Attack on Donald Trump's campaign
The Trump campaign admitted the cyberattack when Politico began receiving emails from an anonymous account named “Robert” with important internal documents from the former president's campaign.
One of those communications, Politico reported, was an investigative dossier on Senator J.D Vance, Trump's running mate.
Both Microsoft and Google claim to have disrupted efforts by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard cyber-espionage group to hack into both parties' campaigns this year. Three U.S. agencies said Monday that Iran was responsible for attacking both parties' campaigns and breaching the Trump campaign. The Harris campaign has told NBC News that it was not breached.
Iran's delegation to the United Nations denied any involvement in these attacks. "Such allegations are baseless and without any basis," an Iranian government spokesman told NBC. "As we have previously announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran harbors neither the intention nor the motive to interfere in the U.S. presidential election."
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