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US says Iran emailed Trump campaign material to Biden staff

September 19, 2024

The United States said the hackers sent emails, which included stolen excerpts from Donald Trump's presidential campaign, to staff of his then-rival, Joe Biden. Both presidential candidates said such attempts took place.

https://p.dw.com/p/4kogb
Illustration of computer data
Hackers sought to interest Joe Biden's campaign in information stolen from rival Donald Trump's campaignImage: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/picture alliance

Iranian hackers sent emails containing stolen material from Donald Trump's campaign to people involved in President Joe Biden's then re-election campaign, part of an alleged broader effort by Tehran to influence the upcoming US presidential election, US agencies said on Wednesday.

As part of the attempt, hackers sent emails which offered "stolen, non-public" material from Donald Trump's campaign to then-democratic candidate Joe Biden's staff.

Biden's staff didn't respond to emails

None of Biden's staff replied to the emails, according to the authorities.

The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency first accused Tehran of trying to influence the 2024 presidential election, an allegation Iran previously denied.

The same agencies also named Russia and China as "trying by some measure to exacerbate divisions in US society for their own benefit."

Social media company Meta said in August that a group of Iranian hackers had tried to go after both presidential campaigns through staffers' accounts on the messaging app WhatsApp.

According to Meta, the group posed as support agents from tech giants such as Google and Microsoft.

The company said that while it has no evidence of any accounts being compromised, they chose to share their findings publicly "out of an abundance of caution."

Microsoft says 'most perilous moment to come 48 hours before election'

Microsoft boss Brad Smith also warned of meddling attempts ahead of the November election.

"The most perilous moment will come, I think, 48 hours before the elections," Smith said as part of a US Senate hearing on Wednesday, referring to an attempt by a "Russian group" to interfere with the elections in Slovakia last fall.

"There are real and serious threats," he added.

The US goes to the polls on November 5, with both Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris saying they've been targeted by cyberattacks in recent weeks.

ftm/jsi (Reuters, dpa)