Microsoft Reveals Iranian Cyberattacks On US Officials Ahead Of Election

Microsoft researchers revealed on Friday that Iranian government-linked hackers attempted to hack into the account of a “high ranking official” on the US presidential campaign in June, weeks after accessing the account of a county-level US official.


The intrusions were part of Iranian groups’ expanding efforts to influence the US presidential election in November, according to the researchers, who did not disclose any other information about the “official” in question.

The claim follows recent statements by senior US intelligence officials that Iran has increased its use of covert social media profiles with the goal of sowing political strife in the United States.

Iran’s envoy to the United Nations in New York told Reuters in a statement that its cyber capabilities were “defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces” and that there were no plans to conduct cyberattacks. “The U.S. presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere,” the mission noted in response to the Microsoft report’s assertions.

“A group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign” while “another group with assessed links to the IRGC compromised a user account with minimal access permissions at a county-level government,” according to the report.

It claimed the activities looked to be part of a larger effort by Iranian groups to gather intelligence on US political campaigns and target swing states. According to the report, the county employee’s account was compromised in May as part of a larger “password spray operation” in which hackers use common or leaked passwords on multiple accounts until they successfully break into one.

According to the article, the hackers were unable to get access to any other accounts as a result of the breach, and the victims were alerted.

Another Iranian outfit, according to the researchers, has been building “covert” news sites that employ artificial intelligence to grab content from legitimate news sites and target voters on opposite sides of the political spectrum in the US. It named the two sites Nio Thinker (left-leaning) and Savannah Time (conservative).


According to the article, the hackers were unable to get access to any other accounts as a result of the breach, and the victims were alerted.

Another Iranian outfit, according to the researchers, has launched “covert” news sites that employ artificial intelligence to extract articles from legitimate news sites and target US voters on opposite sides of the political spectrum. It named the two sites Nio Thinker (left-leaning) and Savannah Time (conservative).

When I visited both websites on Friday, their ‘About Us’ pages had similar layouts, and none included any contact information. Nio Thinker describes itself as “your go-to destination for insightful, progressive news and analysis that challenges the status quo,” but Savannah Time defines itself as “a reflection of the values that make Savannah unique” and a location “where conservative values meet local insight.”