Cybersecurity Policy Report, FBI Probes Reported Hack of Trump Campaign, (Aug 13, 2024)
Organizations Mentioned:National Security Council
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was looking into a suspected cyber attack on the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and Biden administration officials said cyber-enabled election interference by adversarial foreign nations was unacceptable.
The FBI offered few details of its investigation, but a spokesperson told CPR that it was looking into the report from the Trump campaign that it had been hacked by the Iranian government (CPR, Aug. 12).
“We strongly condemn any foreign government or entity who attempts to interfere in our electoral process or in any way tries to undermine confidence in our democratic institutions. And any kind of report like that, any activity, we’re going to take it very, very seriously,” John Kirby, the White House National Security Council’s coordinator–strategic communications, told reporters yesterday at a news briefing.
Mr. Kirby said he couldn’t comment on the “veracity” of the Trump campaign’s claim that Iran was involved but noted intelligence community assessments that Iran was “working to influence the presidential election here in the United States,” according to a White House transcript.
If Iran was involved, the federal government has “a number of tools in our tool belt to hold the Iranian regime accountable, and we won’t hesitate to use them,” Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesperson, told reporters at a separate briefing.
“We’ve raised concerns that Iranian cyber actors have been seeking to influence elections around the world, including those happening in the United States,” Mr. Patel said, according to a State Department transcript. “These latest attempts to interfere in U.S. elections are nothing new for the Iranian regime, which from our vantage point has undermined democracies, or attempted to, for many years now.”
News: FederalLegislation DataSecurity