Microsoft has released new intelligence warning of an uptick in Iranian influence campaigns ahead of the US presidential election in November.
Four Iranian groups have been identified by Microsoft using different techniques, tactics and procedures (TTPs) to either sway voter opinion, attack the campaigns specifically, or sow distrust in the political system.
In one of the examples given by Microsoft, an Iranian group targeted “a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign” with a phishing attack, and then” unsuccessfully attempted to log into an account belonging to a former presidential candidate.”
Trump campaign hacked
Following the publication of Microsoft's intelligence, the presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump alleged some of its communications had been compromised by “foreign sources hostile to the United States.”
Citing Microsoft's report, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, Steven Cheung, spoke to Politico on the attack, stating “These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process.”
“On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’ on the U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee,” Cheung concluded.
Politico also received a number of anonymous messages from someone who identified themselves only as “Robert” who sent through a number of internal communications from within the Trump campaign, which Politico verified as authentic with two people familiar with the documents on condition of anonymity.
Contained within the documents was a research document identified as a vetting file for Trump’s recently selected vice-presidential nominee JD Vance. Included within this was a section titled “POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES” which contained a number of previous criticisms of Trump. “Robert” also further stated that they have a “variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions.”
Microsoft's intelligence report additionally identified an Iranian group that is attempting to influence US voters at opposite ends of the political spectrum, with a site catering to left-leaning audiences regularly insulting former president Trump, and a right-leaning site that frequently posts about LGBTQ+ issues and gender, with much of the content being stolen from other US publications.
Another group identified by Microsoft is likely aiming to disrupt and delegitimize the US elections by calling for violence against political figures and groups with the ultimate goal of causing chaos, fear, and undermining authorities.
A fourth group has conducted a password spraying campaign which led to the successful access of an account belonging to a country-level government employee, but no further access was achieved by the group. Microsoft’s observations point towards an intelligence gathering campaign focused on satellite, defense and health sectors.
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