The Iranian government has interfered in the 2024 United States elections through social media efforts and hacking operations.[1][2] Iranian interference has come amidst larger foreign interference in the 2024 United States elections. The efforts were identified as an effort to tip the race against former president Donald Trump through propaganda and disinformation campaigns. However, Iranian efforts have also targeted Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with similar attacks, which The New York Times stated suggested "a wider goal of sowing internal discord and discrediting the democratic system in the United States more broadly in the eyes of the world."[3]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the hack.[5][6] U.S. intelligence agencies stated they were confident that the hacks were perpetrated by Iran on August 19.[2]
In March 2021, the National Intelligence Council released a report that found Russia and Iran carried out operations to influence the 2020 election.[7] A declassified U.S. intelligence report released in December 2023 found with "high confidence" that a "diverse and growing group of foreign actors" including China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba had all interfered in the 2022 midterms with influence campaigns.[8]
By July 2024, American intelligence assessments concluded that Iran had covertly supported pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses using social media by posing as students with operatives providing financial assistance to some protest groups in an attempt to stoke division ahead of the 2024 election.[9][10]
Analysis of Iranian interference has suggested Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and the 2020 assassination of Qassim Suleimani may play a role in Iranian efforts to denigrate Trump. However, The New York Times stated Iran's attacks against Biden and Harris suggest "a wider goal of sowing internal discord and discrediting the democratic system in the United States more broadly in the eyes of the world." It cited two Iranian officials who said Iran was "largely unconcerned with the ultimate victor in November" and believes "that Washington's animosity transcends either political party".[3] Iranian interference has been described by U.S. intelligence officials as "more aggressive" than in the past.[11]
Efforts to interfere with the 2024 United States elections
On August 8, 2024, Microsoft reported[12] that Iran was attempting to influence the 2024 presidential election and that a group affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard had "broken into the email account of a former senior adviser to a presidential campaign".[13][14] On August 10, Politico reported that beginning on July 22, it began receiving emails from an AOL Mail account identified as "Robert" with internal communications from the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign, including a 271-page vetting report on vice presidential candidate JD Vance's potential vulnerabilities, and another document on Marco Rubio, whom Trump had also considered as a running mate. The account did not state how it obtained the documents.[15] The Trump campaign confirmed it had been hacked following Politico's report. Trump advisor Steven Cheung noted Microsoft's report that accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of hacking into the campaign.[16] Although the Trump campaign had become aware of the hack earlier in the summer, it did not report the hack to law enforcement at the time.[17] On August 12 the Harris campaign also claimed to have been victims of a failed spear phishing attack by Iran.[18] On August 14, 2024, Google's Threat Analysis Group reported that Iran had attempted to hack the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns in May and June.[13] According to Google, IRGC-linked group APT42 targeted approximately twelve people associated with the Trump and Biden campaigns.[19]The Washington Post and The New York Times also reported having received hacked materials similar to those described by Politico.[17][20] On August 9, longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone stated that Microsoft had contacted him several months prior that his Hotmail account had been compromised and that it believed the culprit had been Iran, and that a few weeks prior the FBI had informed him his Gmail account had also been compromised.[21] On August 16, OpenAI stated that it had prevented an Iranian misinformation campaign that included falsehoods about the 2024 election.[22] On August 19, American intelligence agencies confirmed that Iran had hacked the Trump campaign and attempted to hack the Biden-Harris campaign through social engineering.[23]
On August 23, Meta announced that it had blocked WhatsApp accounts associated with APT42. The accounts had posed as tech support for companies such as Google and Microsoft, and targeted "political and diplomatic officials, and other public figures, including some associated with administrations of President Biden and former President Trump."[24] Some of the people who were targeted reported suspicious messages to WhatsApp, prompting Meta to investigate; it judged that the targeted accounts had not been compromised.[25]
An Iranian hacking group linked to APT42 used a fake recruitment business to target national security officials in Iran, Syria, and Lebanon for cyber espionage, according to research by Mandiant. The operation, active since 2017, aimed to gather sensitive data for Iranian intelligence.[26]
On August 19, 2024, a joint statement by officials from the FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency stated that "Iran seeks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions" and that the Islamic Republic had "demonstrated a longstanding interest in exploiting societal tensions through various means".[23]
Iran has called allegations of its interference "unsubstantiated and devoid of any standing" and that the "Islamic Republic of Iran harbors neither the intention nor the motive to interfere with the U.S. presidential election".[23]
^Myers, Steven Lee; Hsu, Tiffany; Fassihi, Farnaz (September 4, 2024). "Iran Emerges as a Top Disinformation Threat in U.S. Presidential Race". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Across the United States this spring, Iran also used social media to stoke student-organized protests against Israel's war in Gaza, with operatives providing financial assistance and posing as students, according to American intelligence assessments.