The United States on Monday leveled serious accusations against Iran, claiming it had conducted cyber attacks on the campaign headquarters of both US presidential candidates and attempted to sway American public opinion to exacerbate political tensions.
A joint statement from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said, "We have observed escalating Iranian activity throughout the current election cycle."
The statement corroborated earlier assertions made this month by Republican candidate Donald Trump's campaign, which claimed Iran had infiltrated one of their websites. At the time, Trump maintained that Iran had "only accessed publicly available information."
The intelligence agencies revealed that Iran had also targeted the campaign headquarters of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is set to formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention this week.
In response, the Iranian mission to the UN issued a statement dismissing the accusations as "unfounded and invalid. As we have previously stated, the Islamic Republic of Iran harbors no intention or motivation to interfere in the US presidential election."
The American intelligence community said that Iranian operatives employed social engineering tactics and other methods to "gain access to individuals directly connected to the campaign headquarters of both parties." These activities reportedly involved the theft and disclosure of information "aimed at influencing the US election process," though the statement provided no further details.
