Today, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released the following statement:
Since the August 19, 2024 joint public statement by ODNI, FBI, and CISA on Iranian election influence efforts, the FBI has learned additional details about Iran’s efforts to sow discord and shape the outcome of the U.S. election.
In late June and early July, Iranian cybercriminals sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt of stolen, non-public documents from former President Trump’s campaign. There is currently no information that these recipients responded. Additionally, Iranian cybercriminals have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public documents associated with former President Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations.
This malicious cyber activity is the latest example of Iran’s multifaceted approach, as outlined in the August Joint Statement, to inflame discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process. As the lead threat responder, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible. Foreign actors are escalating their election influence activities as we approach November. In particular, Russia, Iran, and China are to some extent attempting to exacerbate divisions in American society for their own benefit and view election periods as moments of vulnerability. Efforts by these or other foreign actors to undermine our democratic institutions pose a direct threat to the United States and will not be tolerated.
The FBI and CISA encourage campaign and election infrastructure stakeholders to report information about suspicious or criminal activity to their local election crime coordinators through the FBI Field Office (fbi.gov/fieldoffices), by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or online at ic3.gov. Cyber incidents impacting election infrastructure can also be reported to CISA by calling 1-844-SAY-CISA (1-844-729-2472), by emailing report@cisa.dhs.gov, or by reporting online at cisa.gov/report. Election infrastructure stakeholders and the public can find additional resources on how to protect against cyber and physical threats on CISA’s #PROTECT2024 site (cisa.gov/topics/election-security/protect2024).
