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The US government has stated that the cyber attack against Donald Trump’s presidential election campaigns, among other cyber operations, was conducted by Iran.
Trump’s presidential election campaign was reportedly hacked earlier this month after Politico said it was receiving anonymous emails from an AOL address with documents from the campaign.
The threat actor, who went by the name “Robert”, claimed to have a number of documents, including legal documents and internal discussions, and shared internal communications from what appeared to be a senior Trump official.
When asked how they got their hands on the documents, Robert said: “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question will compromise me and also legally restrict you from publishing them.”
In a joint statement by the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the US said that Iran is behind a number of cyber operations to interfere with the US elections and create tensions within US society.
“As each of us has indicated in prior public statements, Iran seeks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions,” said the statement.
“Iran has furthermore demonstrated a longstanding interest in exploiting societal tensions through various means, including through the use of cyber operations to attempt to gain access to sensitive information related to US elections.”
The joint statement uses attacks on the Trump campaign as an example of the operations, adding that Iran has likely attempted to gain access to data about the campaigns directly.
“[Iran’s activities] includes the recently reported activities to compromise former president Trump’s campaign, which the IC attributes to Iran.
“The IC is confident that the Iranians have, through social engineering and other efforts, sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties. Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the US election process,” it said.
The US said that these techniques are not new, naming Russia as another foreign country that had attempted to interfere with US elections.
The statement attributing Iran to the attacks comes just as AI giant OpenAI banned a number of Iranian ChatGPT accounts for spreading AI-generated misinformation about the US elections.
“We have banned these accounts from using our services, and we continue to monitor for any further attempts to violate our policies,” it said.
“The operation used ChatGPT to generate content focused on a number of topics – including commentary on candidates on both sides in the US presidential election – which it then shared via social media accounts and websites.”
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