Microsoft researchers accuse Iranian hackers of attempting to breach US presidential campaign account

Shafaq News/ On Friday, Microsoft researchers accused Iranian-linked hackers of attempting to breach the account of a "senior official" in a US presidential campaign in June, following a similar incident involving an American county official's account weeks earlier.

In their report, researchers did not disclose further details about the identity of the senior official. However, they indicated that these breaches were part of a broader pattern of increased Iranian attempts to influence the upcoming US presidential election in November.

This report follows recent statements from US intelligence officials who have observed Iran intensifying its use of covert social media accounts to stir political discord within the United States.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York responded to the accusations by asserting that its cyber capabilities are "defensive and proportional to the threats faced" and that Iran has no plans to engage in cyberattacks. The mission further stated, "The US presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not intervene."

The Microsoft report detailed that a group managed by an intelligence unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard sent a phishing email to a senior presidential campaign official, while another group linked to the Revolutionary Guard compromised a user account with minimal privileges at a county government level.

This activity appeared to be part of a broader campaign by Iranian groups to gather intelligence on US political campaigns and target key swing states. The report noted that the county employee’s account was compromised in May as part of a wider "password spraying" attack, where hackers use commonly known or leaked passwords across multiple accounts to gain access to at least one.

The report concluded that the hackers did not gain access to any additional accounts through this breach and that the targeted individuals were notified.