Iran identified as the greatest international threat to US elections
A recent Axios report on the analysis of Iran’s cyber activities to interfere in US elections indicates that out of the three hostile countries identified by security agencies as threats to US security, society, and election integrity, Iran is considered the greatest threat. Recent developments and reports about the hacking of the campaign systems of the two US election rivals, especially after the FBI informed Harris’s campaign that they, like Trump’s campaign, were targeted by Iranian hackers, have changed the dynamics.
An official report by the US Director of National Intelligence, released 100 days before the country’s elections, which has been declassified and published, mentioned plans by Iran, China, and Russia to interfere in the elections and create tension in the US.
Now these analyses and assessments have changed, and it is Iran that has become a serious threat on its own. A former senior FBI official has gone further and warned that Iran is implementing Russia’s 2016 election interference plans in a tangible way for this year’s elections.
One of the biggest and most significant aspects of this bizarre adventure by the Iranian regime is a miscalculation that seems to have occurred.
Apparently, the extensive scope of US cybersecurity organizations’ activities was not considered in these calculations. The structure that Biden established after beginning his presidency to prevent a repeat of the 2016 events has created a framework for identifying cyber infiltration networks, and US counterattacks have often been extremely severe.
Several key Iranian hackers have already been identified, and aside from the cyber strikes and attacks against them, which naturally have not been made public, they have been officially charged and have no way to leave Iran permanently.
The recent cyberattack on the Central Bank, which was officially denied, was not accidental.