Groups connected to the Iranian government are seeking to interfere in the United States presidential election through large-scale online disinformation campaigns and hacking attempts by senior officials, Microsoft researchers said in a report released Friday.
According to the report, an Iranian organization called Storm-2035 has introduced several fake news stories aimed at the left and right electorate with “polarizing messages about issues such as United States presidential candidates, LGBTQ rights, and the conflict between Israel and Hamas. “
Examples of such sites highlighted in the report include one called “Nio Thinker,” which targets liberals attacking Trump and targets conservatives called “Savannah Time,” which delves into LGBTQ issues, “specifically, gender reassignment. “
Microsoft researchers say they’ve uncovered evidence that those sites “use artificial intelligence to plagiarize at least some of their content from U. S. publications” and other AI teams to boost their search engine success.
Another Iran-linked group, Sefid Flood, “began organizing” election interference operations in March and specializes in impersonating teams of social and political activists to “sow doubt about the integrity of elections” and incite violence against political figures, among other things.
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Microsoft also discovered that the election interference crusade concerned hacking carried out through computers connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In June, IRGC-backed hacking organization Mint Sandstorm sent a phishing email to an anonymous senior presidential crusade official with the compromised email ID of a former senior advisor. Spear phishing is a targeted attack that aims to steal sensitive data by tricking the victim into opening a malicious link or file. In this case, the phishing email included a fake link that would direct the target to a domain controlled by the hacker, before sending them to the real online page mentioned in the link. Mint Sandstorm also unsuccessfully attempted to access an account belonging to an anonymous former presidential candidate. In May, another IRGC-connected hacking organization, Peach Sandstorm, compromised a user account at a county government in a swing state. The report notes that the compromised account only had minimal access permission and that researchers did not engage in any privilege escalation, which would have targeted more sensitive accounts or data. In May, another IRGC-connected hacking organization, Peach Sandstorm, compromised a user account at a county government in a swing state.
Earlier this year, Microsoft reported that Russia and China were using online disinformation to create departments in the United States and influence the final results of the presidential election. The company’s researchers discovered that fake social media accounts run by actors linked to the Chinese Communist Party were using online surveys to perceive issues that sharply divide American voters. Chinese actors have also reportedly used AI-generated content to sow political sentiment among American voters. Microsoft found that several of them sought to influence the election using “a combination of 2020 themes with a renewed emphasis on undermining the United States for Ukraine. “
Microsoft uncovers Russian influence operations U. S. elections have begun (Reuters)
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