FBI Confirms Iranian Threat Actors Are Trying to Compromise Presidential Campaigns of Both Political Parties

Iranian threat actors have tried to compromise the campaign of former US President Donald Trump using social engineering tactics and other means, according to a report released by the FBI and other institutions belonging to the intelligence community.

Only a week ago, Trump campaign staff claimed to have been the target of Iranian hackers. No evidence was provided, but the staff pointed to a Microsoft research that indicated the Iranian’s interest in this area. In fact, the research itself is called “Iran Targeting 2024 US Election” and a fairly specific cybersecurity incident is described in one of the paragraphs.

“Yet another Iranian group, this one connected with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account of a former senior advisor,” reads the research.

This also follows reports from the media and revealed by Politico that someone is trying to give away documents seemingly obtained from the Trump campaign, including a vetting research dossier on senator Sen. JD Vance, likely put together before he became the VP pick.

While the media didn’t publish those documents, the timing seems to indicate they were actually obtained by the Iranian hackers. The FBI announced that it’s already opened an investigation, and now they’ve released more information.

“The Intelligence Community (IC) has previously reported that Iran perceives this year’s elections to be particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests,” reads the joint statement put out by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

“This 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,” they added.

Authorities added that it’s not the first attack of its kind, and it likely won’t be the last. The FBI is urging campaigns and staffers to use strong passwords and only official email accounts for official business, use two-factor authentication, update software, and avoid clicking on links or opening attachments from suspicious emails.