Two Iranians charged with US election interference
ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS | November 19, 2021
Two suspected Iranian hackers charged in campaign of election interference aimed at intimidating American voters.
Two suspected Iranian computer hackers have been charged in a broad campaign of election interference aimed at intimidating American voters during last year’s presidential race and undermining confidence that the results of the contest could be trusted, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
Prosecutors said the activities exploited not only computer vulnerabilities but also existing social divisions to sow discord and confusion among voters.
The Iranian cyber campaign, according to the report, included bogus emails that targeted Democratic and Republican voters with different messages, the distribution of a fabricated video that purported to show acts of election fraud and an unsuccessful effort the day after the election to gain access to an American media company’s network.
The indictment makes clear that even as much of the public concern about foreign interference in last year’s election centered on Russian efforts to disparage Trump’s challenger, Joe Biden, Iranian hackers were engaged in a wide-ranging influence campaign of their own.
The indictment, filed in the federal court in Manhattan and unsealed Thursday, accuses Iranian nationals Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian of helping carry out the scheme. The Treasury Department also announced sanctions against the men, their colleagues and the company they worked for, according to AP.
The defendants, described in the indictment as experienced hackers who worked as contractors for a cybersecurity firm, are not in custody and are believed to be in Iran. Officials hope at minimum that the indictment and accompanying sanctions will restrict their ability to travel. Each faces a broad array of charges, including voter intimidation, transmission of interstate threats and computer crimes.
Officials said that as part of the cyber campaign, the hackers attempted to compromise voter websites in 11 states and successfully downloaded voter information of more than 100,000 people in one state.
While the defendants did not use that information to attempt to change vote totals, officials said, they created the appearance that the election results could not be trusted by leaving the false impression that it was legally possible to submit fraudulent ballots.
They also sent Americans what officials described as carefully curated messages, specifically tailored to appeal to — and divide — members of both major political parties.
These included messages that purported to be from a far-right group, the Proud Boys, that threatened Democratic voters with physical harm if they didn’t change their party affiliation and vote for Trump.
“You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you,” the email said, according to prosecutors.
To Republican officials and people associated with the Trump campaign, meanwhile, the hackers crafted Facebook messages that falsely claimed that Democrats were planning to exploit security vulnerabilities in state voter registration websites and commit voter fraud, the indictment says.
Another tool was a fake video spread through social media platforms that purported to show an individual hacking into state voting websites and creating fraudulent absentee ballots, according to the indictment.
