FBI confirms Iran tried to influence election by sending stolen Trump campaign material to Biden's team
The agency also reported that the Iranian regime sent stolen files to US media organizations.
Donald Trump in his time as president
The FBI confirmed that the Iranian regime sought to sow chaos in the U.S. presidential election after stealing material from Donald Trump's campaign to send to Joe Biden's team.
"Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails," announced the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a joint statement on Wednesday.
Previously, it had been revealed that Iran had carried out an attack against the Trump campaign and against the government of the state of Utah, but this is the first time a security agency has confirmed that the Iranian regime attempted to send such material to an adversarial political campaign.
According to the agencies, the Iranian regime's interference is to "stoke discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process." However, it is still unclear whether their efforts are paying off, as there is no information indicating whether Democratic recipients responded to messages about material stolen from the Trump campaign.
In the report, the agencies indicated that Iran has been interfering in the election since June by sending material stolen from the Trump campaign to U.S. media organizations.
"Furthermore, Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations," the agencies sentenced.
"As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible (...) Foreign actors are increasing their election influence activities as we approach November."
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