U.S. intelligence officials said Monday they were confident Iran was responsible for hacking Donald Trump's presidential campaign, calling the cyber intrusion part of a brazen and broader effort by Tehran to interfere in American politics and undermine faith in democratic institutions.
While the Trump campaign and private-sector cybersecurity investigators had previously said Iran was behind the hacking attempts, this was the first time the U.S. government had blamed an attack.
A joint statement from the FBI and other federal agencies also said Iran was responsible for attempts to hack Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, with hackers “attempting to gain access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaign of both political parties.”
Federal officials say the hacking and other activities were intended not only to sow discord but also to influence the outcome of elections that Iran considers “particularly important in terms of impacting national security interests.”
“We have seen increasingly aggressive Iranian activity this election cycle, including operations to influence the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns,” said the statement, which was also released by the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The statement largely corroborates findings from private companies such as Microsoft, which earlier this month released a report detailing efforts by foreign agents to interfere in this year's election, and Google, which separately said an Iranian group linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had tried since May to infiltrate the personal email accounts of about a dozen people associated with President Joe Biden and Trump.