WASHINGTON, August 20. /TASS/. The US intelligence services believe that Iran allegedly tried to interfere in the US presidential election by carrying out cyber attacks against the campaign headquarters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a joint statement.
"We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns," the statement said. "This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the Intelligence Community attributes to Iran," the agencies pointed out.
The US intelligence community emphasized Tehran has "through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties." "Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the US election process," the agencies underscored.
According to the US intelligence services, Iran, as well as Russia, allegedly "employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and prior federal election cycles but also in other countries around the world."
In August, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed to TASS that it was investigating a cyber attack allegedly carried out by Iran on Trump's campaign headquarters. Iran's mission to the UN told TASS that Tehran had "no intentions or plans to carry out cyber attacks" and pointed out that the Iranian authorities did not interfere in the US presidential election.