Iran denies US Intelligence report on Trump campaign hack

Iran has denied a US intelligence report released on Monday that confirmed Iranian state actors were responsible for the recent cyberattack on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations referred to the report as "unsubstantiated and devoid of any standing" in a statement later on Monday.

The statement noted that "the Islamic Republic of Iran harbors neither the intention nor the motive to interfere with the US presidential election" and called on the US government to provide “any evidence supporting its claims,” assuring that Iran would "respond accordingly" if such evidence were presented.

In a joint statement on Monday, the FBI, alongside the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, noted an escalation in Iranian efforts to interfere with the ongoing election cycle.

The statement specifically highlighted "influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting Presidential campaigns," with the recent compromise of former President Trump’s campaign attributed to Iran by the intelligence community.

Additionally, the statement underscored that Iran has "sought access to individuals with direct access to the Presidential campaigns of both political parties."

Earlier this month, the Trump campaign said that it had been targeted by a cyberattack attributed to Iran. However, at that time, the intelligence community had not provided any official attribution regarding the perpetrators of the breach.

According to a report by The Washington Post, one of the hacking targets identified was Susie Wiles, a top adviser and one of the most senior officials in former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Also, earlier this summer, reports emerged that Iran had devised a scheme to assassinate Trump. Tehran, however, has denied any involvement in the alleged assassination plot.

Last week, Kamala Harris’s campaign revealed that the FBI had alerted them to an attempted cyber intrusion by foreign hackers.

“Iran perceives this year’s elections to be particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests, increasing Tehran’s inclination to try to shape the outcome,” the agencies said.

This development comes amid growing reports of Iran's escalating efforts to disrupt the US presidential election, where the race between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican incumbent Donald Trump is becoming increasingly competitive as the pivotal November 5th election approaches.

OpenAI announced on Friday that it had deactivated multiple accounts connected to an Iranian group allegedly exploiting its ChatGPT chatbot to generate content to influence the US presidential election and other significant issues. The Microsoft-backed AI company revealed that the content produced by these accounts included commentary on both sides of the US elections and the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On Friday, Axios reported that Iran, rather than Russia, is emerging as the most significant nation-state threat to the upcoming US presidential election in November.

Earlier in August, a Microsoft threat intelligence report also identified an Iranian group as a key player in orchestrating influence campaigns aimed at swaying US voters, particularly in crucial swing states. These operations extended to intelligence-gathering on political campaigns, potentially setting the stage for future interference.

The report also revealed that the group in question established covert news sites targeting both left-leaning and conservative US voters, employing AI to plagiarize content and disseminate polarizing political narratives.