What you need to know
- The presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump shared that it had been hacked by “foreign sources hostile to the United States.”
- The campaign suggested that Iran was involved in the hack, though Iran denied any involvement.
- Claims of Iran's involvement come just days after Microsoft published a report about several Iranian groups attempting to influence the US presidential election.
Several Iranian groups have made efforts to influence the 2024 US presidential election, according to a recent report by Microsoft and a blog post from the tech giant. The presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump pointed toward Microsoft's report when suggesting that Iran was involved in a recent hack of the campaign, as reported by the Associated Press.
Microsoft's report discusses four different Iranian groups that have tried to interfere with the US presidential election in some way. The recent claims by the Trump campaign reference a group connected to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), which sent a spear phishing email to both a former senior advisor of the Trump campaign and a high-ranking official from the campaign. That attack used a link that would eventually navigate to the website it was supposed to go to, but first it would route traffic through a domain controlled by the Iranian group.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said that "foreign sources hostile to the United States" were behind the attack.
Iran denies accusations, stating to the Associated Press, "we do not accord any credence to such reports. The Iranian government neither possesses nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election.”
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One of many attacks
The Trump campaign pointed toward the spear phishing campaign that occurred in June, but there have been several other attacks surrounding that 2024 presidential election that Microsoft attributes to Iranian groups.
"In recent weeks, groups connected with the Iranian government have upped two kinds of activity," said Microsoft. "First, they’ve laid the groundwork for influence campaigns on trending election-related topics and begun to activate these campaigns in an apparent effort to stir up controversy or sway voters – especially in swing states. Second, they’ve launched operations that Microsoft assesses are designed to gain intelligence on political campaigns and help enable them to influence the elections in the future."
According to Microsoft, one Iranian group has launched several news sites that sit on both ends of the political spectrum. A site called Nio Thinker leans toward the left and said former President Trump was an “opioid-pilled elephant in the MAGA china shop” and a “raving mad litigiosaur.”
A different site, the Savannah Time, is right-leaning and covers stories related to the LGBTQ+ community.
Microsoft explained that the sites created by the Iranian group use AI and are plagiarized to some extent.
A second Iranian group has operated since March and Microsoft believes the group may be planning activities that are "even more extreme, including intimidation or inciting violence against political figures or groups, with the ultimate goals of inciting chaos, undermining authorities, and sowing doubt about election integrity."
The third group is aforementioned group connected to IRGC that sent the spear phishing email in June.
The final group compromised an account of a county-level government employee in a swing state, according to Microsoft. The tech giant has not been able to determine the ultimate goals of that group since the group only managed to gain additional access to a single account. The group has, however, focused on collecting intelligence in the defense, health, and satellite sectors, according to Microsoft's report.
Microsoft explained that it shares its reports so candidates, government institutions, and parties are aware of threats and to help those targeted protect themselves. The tech giant also emphasized that it will not endorse a candidate or political party.
