US security agencies have accused Iran of seeking to influence the 2024 election, saying it was behind a recent hack targeting Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
Both Trump's and his rival Kamala Harris's campaigns had said they had been targeted by cyber attacks in recent weeks with US-based tech companies confirming that they detected such attacks.
A joint statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed the allegations of the Trump campaign that it had been targeted, most likely by Iran.
"We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns," the security agencies said.
"This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump's campaign, which the (intelligence community) attributes to Iran," they said.
The US intelligence agencies have expressed confidence that Iran had attempted to 'influence the US election process' using social engineering and other methods" the statement dated Aug 19 said.
On Aug 10, Trump's campaign said that it had been hacked and blamed "foreign sources" for distributing internal communications and a dossier on running mate J D Vance, according to media reports.
"These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process," Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
On Aug 13, Democratic presidential candidate Harris's campaign said that it had been targeted by foreign hackers as well, but did not name any country behind the attempt.
In 2016, emails of Democratic National Committee were hacked, possibly by Russians, which exposed internal party communications, including about candidate Hillary Clinton.
Earlier this month, Google said that hackers backed by Iran were targeting the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns.
A threat report by Google said that a hacker group known as APT42 linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was targeting high-profile individuals and organizations in Israel and the United States, including government officials and political campaigns.
The United States is set to hold its presidential polls on November 5 this year. While former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, is running for a second non-consecutive term after losing to Biden in 2020, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, became the party's candidate after President Biden withdrew his re-election bid in July 2024.
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