Hackers linked to the Iranian government attempted to break into the account of a “high-ranking official” associated with the US election campaign, Microsoft analysts reported.
The hacking attempt occurred in June. A few weeks earlier, the account of a US district-level employee had been hacked.
According to Microsoft analysts, these actions are part of increasingly intense attempts by Iranian groups to influence the November presidential elections in the US.
A senior US intelligence official recently said that Iran is increasingly using secret social media accounts to try to foment political chaos in the United States.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York assured Reuters in a statement that Iran’s cyber capabilities were “defensive and commensurate with the threats” and that the country did not intend to carry out cyber attacks.
The US presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere
— he wrote in response to Microsoft’s report.
The report states that “a group led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence unit sent a phishing email profiled for a high-ranking official in the presidential campaign” and “another group believed to be associated with the Guard accessed a user’s account with the county government.”
As noted in the report, the purpose of these activities was likely to obtain intelligence information about American political campaigns and to influence the political situation in states where neither of the two major parties has a clear advantage (swing states).
tkwl/PAP
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