Published on: October 4, 2024
US courts indicted three Iranian nationals for their role in manipulating the 2024 US election.
The indictment follows a lengthy Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation. They collected evidence that the men were impersonating US government officials to launch spearphishing campaigns on potential voters and government officials.
Once they gained unauthorized access to real accounts, they stole sensitive election information and personal contact data. After stealing someone’s personal data, they’d send malicious phishing emails to the victims. The FBI reported that there is no evidence to suggest that any of these victims responded.
The FBI has been reporting for years that Iran has been ramping up its aggressiveness with cyber attacks. Reports include attacks on hospitals, government agencies, key infrastructure, and even attacks on individual citizens.
Most recently, they also confirmed that Iranian hackers attempted to steal nonpublic campaign material about the 2024 Trump election campaign.
The FBI released a statement, explaining the situation.
“These individuals — employees of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—targeted a U.S. political campaign, current and former U.S. officials, and members of the American media—all in an attempt to sow discord and undermine our democracy,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here: attempts by a hostile foreign government to steal campaign information from one presidential candidate and then shopping around both to that candidate’s opponent and the media.”
According to the FBI, this most recent election interference is just another showing of Iran’s bold behavior and that they’ll continue to thwart Iran.
“And as long as you keep attempting to flout the rule of law, you’re going to keep running into the FBI, because we’re going to leverage all of our partnerships and use every tool at our disposal to protect the American people and defend our democracy,” Wray said.