Iran has become a greater danger than Russia to national security regarding the upcoming U.S. presidential elections scheduled for November, according to a report published by Axios on Saturday. The site cites officials stating that both Russia and Iran have become bolder and more ravenous in their attacks on U.S. elections, and the final stages of the presidential elections could see increased chaos.
Google revealed on Wednesday that Iranian-backed hackers are targeting the election campaigns of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival, Donald Trump. Axios reported that the FBI is currently investigating accusations made by Trump’s campaign against Iran for hacking their systems and stealing information to leak to U.S. media.
Former assistant FBI director James Torugl stated that Iran is now following the playbook set by Russia in 2016 to target the U.S. presidential campaign. Torugl adds that "it is no coincidence that we are now witnessing active cyber operations and threats reflecting Russian tactics."
This comes at a time when OpenAI announced on Friday that it had removed a network of Iranian accounts that were using a chatbot in an attempt to launch a foreign influence campaign on the U.S. presidential elections. The company said it closed the Iranian group's accounts for using the chatbot "ChatGPT" to generate content aimed at influencing the U.S. presidential elections and other issues.
Bloomberg reported that the network aimed to influence the elections by creating long articles and comments on social media. The accounts generated content that claimed to be created by liberal and conservative-leaning users, including posts suggesting that former President Donald Trump was being censored on social media and that he was ready to declare himself the king of the United States. Another user described Vice President Kamala Harris's choice of Tim Walz for the vice president position as a "calculated choice for unity."
Researchers at Microsoft this month indicated that hackers linked to the Iranian government attempted to hack a “senior official” account in a U.S. presidential campaign in June, following weeks after a hack of a county-level U.S. official's account. The researchers in the report did not provide any further details about the identity of this "official," stating that the hacks are part of an increasing number of efforts by Iranian groups to influence the U.S. presidential elections.