U.S. intelligence officials warn of Iran's attempts to interfere in presidential election
Washington — Iran's efforts to interfere with the 2024 presidential election are growing more aggressive as they target political campaigns — including GOP nominee Donald Trump's — and the American public with cyber and influence operations, three federal intelligence agencies said in a warning issued Monday.
The rare joint statement from the FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the measures Iran is taking to "stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions" have increased because the nation's government "perceives this year's elections to be particularly consequential" for its domestic policies.
Intelligence officials for the first time publicly blamed Iran-backed hackers for the targeting of the Trump campaign, which revealed last week that it had been hacked and blamed Iranian actors for stealing and distributing sensitive internal documents.
Three sources familiar with the investigation confirmed to CBS News that federal investigators suspected Iranian hackers targeted individuals associated with the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns. The FBI launched the probes in the early summer after both presidential campaigns experienced attempted phishing schemes targeting campaign staff, the sources said.
According to Monday's statement, the intelligence community said it 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 U.S. election process," the statement said.
A senior official with the Harris campaign said last week, "We are not aware of any security breaches of our systems."
The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the U.N. denied the intelligence community's accusations.
"Such allegations are unsubstantiated and devoid of any standing," the Iranian mission said in a statement Monday. "As we have previously announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran harbors neither the intention nor the motive to interfere with the U.S. presidential election. Should the U.S. government genuinely believe in the validity of its claims, it should furnish us with the pertinent evidence—if any—to which we will respond accordingly."
U.S. officials including the director of national intelligence and the heads of the FBI and CISA have warned of campaigns by foreign adversaries to undermine American elections, and Monday's statement makes clear the approach Iran is taking "is not new."
In the runup to the 2020 presidential election, FBI Director Christopher Wray and then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Iran was working to "damage" Donald Trump's reelection efforts. And during the 2016 presidential race, Russian hackers stole and disseminated the emails of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"This activity demonstrates the Iranians' increased intent to exploit our online platforms in support of their objectives," the officials warned Monday.
The FBI and CISA said last week that they "have no reporting to suggest cyber activity, to include ransomware, has ever prevented a registered voter from casting a ballot, compromised the integrity of any ballots cast, or affected the accuracy of vote tabulation or voter registration information."
"While ransomware attacks against state or local government networks or election infrastructure could cause localized delays, they will not compromise the security or accuracy of vote casting or counting processes," they said.