United States Files Charges Against Three Iranian Citizens for Interfering in Elections and Committing Cybercrimes
Charges have been revealed by federal authorities in the United States against three Iranian nationals purportedly linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for their involvement in theft of sensitive data from current and former officials.
In a move, the Department of Justice (DoJ) indicted Masoud Jalili, aged 36, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, aged 34, and Yasar (Yaser) Balaghi, aged 37, for collaborating in a scheme with both identified and unidentified accomplices to disrupt the U.S. electoral system.
They are accused of intruding into various accounts belonging to current and former American officials, media personalities, non-governmental organizations, and individuals connected to U.S. political campaigns. None of the three operatives, reportedly affiliated with the Basij Resistance Force, have been apprehended.
“The actions were part of Iran’s ongoing efforts to sow discord, undermine trust in the U.S. election processes, and illicitly collect information regarding present and past U.S. officials, which may be exploited to further IRGC’s nefarious activities, including continuous attempts to seek justice for Qasem Soleimani, the deceased commander of the IRGC – Qods Force (IRGC-QF),” as per the DoJ statement.
As per the DoJ report, the operation involved gaining entry to privileged campaign records and emails linked to the election campaign approximately around May 2024. Subsequently, the next month, the suspects carried out hacking and disseminated the purloined campaign data to media outlets and individuals associated with the opposing presidential campaign.
This announcement comes nearly a fortnight following the accusation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that Iranian threat agents had pilfered private data from ex-President Trump’s campaign and supplied it to President Biden’s campaign and U.S. media entities.
“These hacking and data release efforts by Iran represent a direct attack on the integrity of our democratic mechanisms,” remarked Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
The DoJ additionally contends that Jalili, Aghamiri, and Balaghi executed a comprehensive hacking operation commencing in January 2020 to infiltrate victims’ systems and online profiles employing spear-phishing and social engineering methodologies.
These tactics involved assuming false identities to deceive users into clicking on harmful links, fabricating login pages to gather account credentials, and leveraging the compromised accounts to send deceptive messages to other targets. The DoJ indicated that some of these ploys were successful.
The trio face 18 charges, encompassing conspiracy to commit identity theft, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, illegal access to computers to procure data from a secured system, unauthorized access to computers to defraud and acquire assets, and wire fraud.
In tandem with the indictment, the Department of State has declared a reward of up to $10 million for information pertaining to Jalili, Aghamiri, and Balaghi, as well as the IRGC’s interventions in U.S. elections or linked persons and entities.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has implemented penalties against seven individuals accused of malicious cyber operations, such as spear-phishing, hacking and releasing data, and purported meddling in political campaigns:
- Masoud Jalili
- Ali Mahdavian, Fatemeh Sadeghi, Elaheh Yazdi, Sayyed Mehdi Rahimi Hajjiabadi, Mohammad Hosein Abdolrahimi, and Rahmatollah Askarizadeh (staff and officials of Emennet Pasargad)
It’s pertinent to mention that the U.S. government had previously imposed sanctions on six other employees from the same company in November 2021 for their efforts to intervene in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
“The Iranian government is increasingly seeking to impact the forthcoming U.S. elections as it assesses that the outcome will affect U.S. foreign policy towards Iran,” confirmed the State Department, as stated.
“State-backed Iranian actors have engaged in various nefarious cyber operations, including hacking and dissemination, aiming to erode trust in the U.S.’ electoral procedures and institutions while also striving to influence political campaigns.”
In August, Iran rebuffed accusations of involvement in the hack, denouncing them as unfounded and asserting that Iran’s “cyber capabilities are purely defensive and commensurate with the threats it faces,” as reported by Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA here.
The indictment represents the most recent step taken by the U.S. government to counter foreign attempts to disrupt the upcoming election. Recently, it also put forth criminal charges and penalties against staff of the Russian state broadcaster RT for purportedly funding pro-Trump social media figures in the U.S.
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