Staff Report –
Foreign actors, especially Iran, Russia and China, are actively involved in trying to sow discord, create chaos and influence the elections coming up in the United States to undermine American democracy for their own nefarious purposes.
That’s according to a joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued Thursday.
They have evidence that Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign, each containing excerpts taken from stolen, non-public material from texts and emails of former President Donald Trump’s campaign. Apparently it was an attempt to fool them into using the material in a way that would have backfired, in the process confusing the public and the issues.
Since another public statement on Iranian election influence efforts back in August, the FBI has learned additional details about Iran’s efforts to sow discord and try to shape the outcome of U.S. elections, they say.
They cautioned there is no information currently indicating those recipients replied to the messages, or did anything with them. Yet Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations as well, hoping to lure them into reporting a false story and undermining their credibillity.
“This malicious cyber activity is the latest example of Iran’s multi-pronged approach to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process,” the statement says. “As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible.”
Foreign actors are increasing their election influence activities as we approach November.
“In particular, Russia, Iran and China are trying by some measure to exacerbate divisions in U.S. society for their own benefit, and see election periods as moments of vulnerability,”: they say. “Efforts by these, or other foreign actors, to undermine our democratic institutions are a direct threat to the U.S. and will not be tolerated.”
The FBI and CISA encourage campaigns and election infrastructure stakeholders to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to their local Election Crimes Coordinators via FBI field office (fbi.gov/fieldoffices), by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or online at ic3.gov. Cyber incidents impacting election infrastructure can also be reported to CISA by calling 1-844-SAY-CISA (1-844-729-2472), emailing report@cisa.dhs.gov, or reporting online at cisa.gov/report.
Election infrastructure stakeholders and the public can find additional resources about how to protect against cyber and physical threats at CISA’s #PROTECT2024 (cisa.gov/topics/election-security/protect2024).
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