Microsoft Reports Iranian Hackers Targeting U.S. Officials Ahead of Elections

Microsoft announced that hackers linked to the Iranian government attempted to infiltrate the account of a "high-ranking official" in the U.S. presidential election campaign in June of this year. Reuters reported on Friday, August 9, citing researchers from the company, that a few weeks earlier, the account of a state-level U.S. official had also been targeted. Microsoft researchers did not provide further details about the "official" in question but stated that the infiltration of these online accounts is part of an increasing effort by Iranian groups to influence the U.S. presidential elections. The U.S. presidential election is scheduled for November 5, 2024 (Aban 15, 1403). The new Microsoft report follows recent statements from senior U.S. intelligence officials regarding the increased use of Iranian covert accounts on social media aimed at creating political discord in the United States. In response to this report, the Iranian representation at the United Nations in New York stated to Reuters that Iran's cyber capabilities are solely "defensive and proportional to the threats it faces" and that Tehran has no plans to conduct cyberattacks. This representation claimed regarding the content of the Microsoft report: "The U.S. presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere." However, the Microsoft report states: "A group managed by the intelligence unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent a targeted phishing email to one of the high-ranking officials in the presidential campaign headquarters" and "another group linked to the IRGC compromised a state-level government account with minimal access permissions." The report emphasizes that these activities are part of a broader pressure from Iranian groups to obtain information about U.S. political campaigns. This is not the first time reports have emerged about Iranian hackers attempting to influence elections in the U.S. Last year, U.S. officials reported that hackers linked to the Islamic Republic had previously breached a local government website that was supposed to report the results of the 2020 U.S. elections, but the U.S. military discovered and neutralized this infiltration in time. Previously, on November 17, 2021, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned six individuals and one company belonging to Iranian nationals for disrupting the previous presidential election and attempting to undermine voter confidence in the U.S. electoral system. The Biden administration, in its second month in office, reported that Iran and Russia interfered in the November 2020 U.S. election process. Recently, the United States set a reward of up to ten million dollars for information leading to the identification or location of six senior operatives behind IRGC cyberattacks. In May of this year, the U.S. Treasury also placed several Iranian individuals and entities on its sanctions list for engaging in malicious cyber activities, and the U.S. Department of Justice announced legal action against four Iranian hackers. The U.S. Treasury stated that it sanctioned four individuals and two companies for their involvement in "malicious cyber activities."