Three Iranian nationals are facing criminal charges for allegedly hacking the Trump campaign and leaking stolen materials to the media to interfere with the 2024 presidential election and advance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s agenda.
Masoud Jalili, 36, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, 34, and Yaser Balaghi, 37, are being charged with allegedly participating in a yearslong hacking operation that targeted dozens of current and former U.S. officials, members of the press, nongovernmental organizations, and campaign officials, the Justice Department announced Friday.
The unsealed indictment against the IRGC-linked operatives includes charges of wire fraud, material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and aggravated identity theft for the cyber attacks. Each one of the defendants would face a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.
“In August, the Intelligence Community reported an ongoing effort by Iran to compromise former President Trump’s campaign and to influence the U.S. election process,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in remarks delivered Friday afternoon.
“The Intelligence Community further reported that Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations,” he added.
The Iranian hackers sent unsolicited emails containing the Trump campaign’s materials to the Biden-Harris campaign around late June after beginning to target the Trump campaign the month before, according to the indictment. Biden-Harris campaign officials did not reply to the emails. Beginning in July, the hackers circulated to members of the media internal campaign materials on the Trump campaign’s potential vice presidential selection.
In carrying out the scheme, Iranian hackers impersonated numerous public figures such as current and former U.S. officials to trick victims into opening spear-phishing emails holding malware. They used multiple techniques to hide their identities such as virtual private networks, fake email accounts, and the accounts of compromised victims to advance the hacking scheme.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Ruth King
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, http://www.ruthfullyyours.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
