Microsoft researchers revealed on Friday that hackers linked to the Iranian government attempted to breach the account of a “high-ranking official” involved in a U.S. presidential campaign in June. This attempt came just weeks after a similar breach targeting a county-level U.S. official.
The incidents were part of what Microsoft described as an increasing effort by Iranian groups to influence the upcoming U.S. presidential election in November. The report did not identify the specific official targeted but highlighted the broader attempts by Iranian hackers to gain intelligence on U.S. political campaigns, particularly in key swing states.
These findings align with recent warnings from senior U.S. intelligence officials, who have observed Iran intensifying its use of covert social media accounts to sow political discord in the United States.
In response to the allegations, Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York told Reuters that its cyber capabilities are “defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces” and that it has no intention of interfering in the U.S. election. “The U.S. presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere,” the statement added.
According to the Microsoft report, a group connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit sent a spear-phishing email to the high-ranking official, while another group with ties to the IRGC compromised a user account at the county level in May. This breach was part of a broader “password spray operation,” where hackers use common or leaked passwords on multiple accounts in hopes of gaining access.
Although the county employee’s account had minimal permissions and no further accounts were compromised, the incident underscores the broader push by Iranian groups to meddle in U.S. electoral processes.
The report also noted that another Iranian group has been running “covert” news sites, using artificial intelligence to scrape content from legitimate news outlets. These sites, named Nio Thinker and Savannah Time, target U.S. voters on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Both sites have similar layouts and do not list any contact information. Nio Thinker presents itself as a progressive news source, while Savannah Time markets itself as a conservative outlet with local insights.
