The United States unveiled charges Friday against three Iranian individuals as it accused Iran of election interference, saying malicious actors had hacked the campaign of former president Donald Trump.
The three defendants were said to have conspired with others to carry out “a years-long, wide ranging hacking operation on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The operation in recent times targeted individuals associated with US political campaigns. “The defendants’ own words make clear that they were attempting to undermine former president Trump’s campaign in advance of the 2024 US presidential election,” Garland said.
The cyber actors had used spear phishing (targeted fake emails) and social engineering techniques to compromise accounts of US government officials and individuals, according to court documents. “The message of the US government is clear: The American people, not a foreign power, decide the outcome of our country’s elections,” Garland added.
– ‘Grave’ threat –
He noted that “there are few actors in this world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran.” According to the indictment, the cyber actors started work as early as in 2020, and around May 2024 began targeting and gaining unauthorized access to personal accounts of people associated with a US presidential campaign.
They then sought to leak stolen material to members of the media and those believed to be associated with a second presidential campaign. While the indictment does not name the second campaign, Garland said Friday that was no information suggesting recipients from President Joe Biden’s campaign responded.
This was before Biden dropped out of the White House race. The United States goes to the polls on November 5. The three hackers — Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi — are residing in Iran. The State Department is offering up to $10 million for information on Jalili and his two IRGC associates.
Besides campaign-related allegations, the indictment also said hackers sought to steal information that could be used to support efforts to avenge the death of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, ordered by Trump when he was president. In a separate statement on Friday, the Treasury Department said it was imposing sanctions on seven individuals including Jalili over efforts to interfere in US elections.
The Treasury “remains strongly committed to holding accountable those who see to undermine our institutions,” said Acting Treasury Under Secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Bradley Smith. Besides Jalili, the Treasury also took aim at six staff and executives of Iranian cybersecurity firm Emennet Pasargad, saying it tried to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.
“Between approximately August and November 2020, Emennet Pasargad led an online operation to intimidate and influence American voters, and to undermine voter confidence and sow discord,” the Treasury said. US authorities had earlier said Iranian cyberattackers offered stolen material from Trump’s campaign to staff for his then-rival Biden.
In 2016, a hack of Democratic National Committee emails — blamed on Russians — exposed internal party communications, including about candidate Hillary Clinton. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’s campaign said in August that it too had been targeted by foreign hackers.
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