u.s.a decides Iran and U.S election

[nelson]

What are the Iranians playing at and on who's side are they?

The Iranians attempted to disrupt the election of 2024 by an intrusion attempt on the Biden campaign with stolen data from Donald Trump's campaign, the FBI said. During late June and early July, hackers sent unsolicited emails containing non-public materials from Trump's campaign to people associated with Biden's team. There is no indication, however, that the recipients accessed the emails, which were mostly treated as spam or phishing attempts.
The breach was part of a broader Iranian plan to influence the election, officials said, including sending emails intended to harm President Trump, which U.S. officials have widely condemned. The Trump campaign didn't acknowledge the intrusion until last August, and although POLITICO and the New York Times were among outlets that received the purloined materials, neither published the details.

The e-mails, from Iranian hackers to people associated with the Biden campaign, contained inside information stolen from Donald Trump's campaign, in a larger scheme by Iran to interfere in the 2024 U.S. election," said the FBI in a statement. Fortunately, no major damage resulted because many e-mails went unopened or were filtered out as phishing.
Working together with other federal agencies, the FBI said this was part of an ongoing effort by Iran to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral process, continuing tactics of foreign interference. Even the Trump campaign acknowledged back in August that Iranian actors compromised their data earlier this year. Although it shared the doctored materials with several of these media organizations, including Politico and The New York Times, the details were not published, thereby keeping any damage at a minimum.
The incident fits within the greater context of interference in U.S. elections by foreign actors, with the two majors accused being Iran and Russia. The Biden-Harris campaign labeled such interference as unacceptable, even while suggesting it was irrelevant. Investigations and possible criminal charges are among the active steps the FBI continues to take against such foreign intrusions.
The hacks by Iranians are an attempt to interfere with the 2024 election and form part of a larger pattern of foreign powers trying to tamper with America's democratic process. This time, hackers distributing purloined information about Trump's campaign targeted the Biden campaign. A breach did indeed occur, but most of the emails were either ignored by their recipients or their content was not engaged with in any significant way, thus tempering any risk to real electoral influence.
Because this attack is consistent with longstanding efforts by Iran to sow discord within the United States via fabricated claims about American politics, U.S. officials have identified it. The FBI works in coordination with other agencies, including CISA and ODNI, to continue to monitor and push back against these foreign threats. Criminal charges can also be filed against those who prepare the legal actions.
It is in contrast to how the U.S. government handled earlier cases, such as Russia's interference in the 2016 election. There was an increasingly hard drive this time to make the public aware of the risks of foreign meddling while making sure the electoral process remained secure.".
To that effect, the Biden-Harris campaign has condemned those activities. However, it takes no injury since there is no evidence that these leaked documents made their way into strategy or public messaging. "The U.S. government promised to continue working at protecting future elections against similar manipulation attempts.".
This response of the U.S. government to the Iranian hacking attempt marks a new and growing commitment to transparency in that respect and to election security. During previous elections, foreign interference had been one big issue, most especially in 2016, when it was found out that Russia meddled into those processes. It is past events that seem to provide important lessons for the current approach, whereby the authorities are quicker to declare breaches and investigate foreign attempts at influencing democratic processes.
Due to these efforts, it is believed that the Biden campaign was hardly affected, and none of the stolen data significantly impacted the election. The Justice Department is already preparing charges against those involved, while federal agencies, meanwhile, continue to harden their defenses against foreign cyber threats. This represents the overriding danger of foreign actors in their aim to manipulate elections in democratic countries, especially with digital means.
It also fits the larger picture of a worldwide pattern of intensifying cyber war in which Iran, Russia, and China are most often cast as the villains in hacking activity against political and strategic objectives. Still, swift action on the part of U.S. intelligence agencies has doubtless averted more serious consequences than occurred here. Those attempts at foreign influence will be even more sophisticated in the future; therefore, vigilance on the part of agencies such as the FBI, CISA, and ODNI remains paramount for the security of elections in the United States.

Edited September 19 by nelson