Amid the ongoing electoral campaigns ahead of the upcoming US Presidential Elections 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reportedly probing allegations over the stealing of sensitive documents from the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign. This development came within days since the Trump campaign declared it had been hacked by Iran.
The FBI released a brief statement on the Trump matter reading, “We can confirm the FBI is investigating this matter”.
US elections: About Iran hacking Trump campaign
Without citing any specific evidence indicating Iran's involvement in the document theft, the Trump campaign made the claim shortly after Microsoft issued a report detailing foreign agents' attempts to interfere in the US election in 2024.
According to Microsoft's recent report, in June, an Iranian military intelligence unit sent “a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor”.
As per reports, the Trump campaign started receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source, an AOL email account identified only as “Robert”, sent across what appeared to be a research dossier the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
Commenting on the matter, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “These documents were obtained illegally” and “intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,”
About the Microsoft report
In its report, Microsoft stated that “foreign malign influence concerning the 2024 US election started off slowly but has steadily picked up pace over the last six months due initially to Russian operations, but more recently from Iranian activity”.
The analysis continued: “Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran's operations have been notable and distinguishable from Russian campaigns for appearing later in the election season and employing cyberattacks more geared toward election conduct than swaying voters.”
“Recent activity suggests the Iranian regime -- along with the Kremlin -- may be equally engaged in election 2024,” Microsoft concluded.
Biden-Harris campaign targeted as well
Besides penetrating the Trump campaign, the phishing attack allegedly targeted the Biden-Harris campaign as well, people privy with the matter said on condition of anonymity. At least three staffers in the Biden-Harris campaign were targeted, it has been told. The attempts came before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
However, FBI investigators have revealed no evidence the attempt was successful.
Harris' campaign said in a statement, “Our campaign vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats, and we are not aware of any security breaches of our systems.” It declined to address whether it had identified any state-based intrusion attempts.
As per reports, the federal probe agency initiated the investigation in June and intelligence officials believe Iran was behind the attempts, that person said.
Officials have also been in touch with tech companies in recent months about the possibility that people linked to the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns were being targeted through email.
