3 minutes agoIran tries to re-assemble “bumbardize” US elections with Russian-style deninforms
Periskopi(2 years ago)
(2 years ago)Iran has launched efforts from four sides to intervene in the November presidential elections in the United States, with the help of websites, hackers and attacks “phosing”. The aim of the sophisticated campaign is to promote distrust in the American democratic system and exploit and increase social divisions, cyber and [to] experts say.
Iran has launched efforts from four sides to intervene in the November presidential elections in the United States, with the help of websites, hackers and attacks “phosing”.
The aim of the sophisticated campaign is to promote distrust in the American democratic system and exploit and increase social divisions, say American cyber and intelligence experts.
As November 5th elections approach, Iranian hackers have been accused of attacking the e-mail accounts of candidates for president, that Republican Donald Trump, and that Democrat Kamala Harris.
Researchers and assessments of American intelligence show that both campaigns, Trump and Harris have been targeted by attacks “phosing”, which were conducted by a group with alleged links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), the elite branch of the Armed Forces.
Experts say an Iranian network called “Storm-2035” operates many pages of nonautical news on the web and on social networks, using content produced by Artificial Intelligence (IA), to stir up conservative and liberal dissidents.
“Iran's main goal in this space is to cause chaos and divisions, as well as to undermine the integrity of the US electoral system”, said Simim Kargar from Washington-based Digital Forenzic Research Laboratory ( DFRLab).
If they succeed, even on a very small scale, there will be evidence of Iran's imminent rhetoric that democracy is a flawed Western ʹconcept, and that even the US, which has often accused Iran of scheming elections, is vulnerable to controversy related to the” elections, she said.
At least four “covered Iranian news sites “, led by Storm-2035, have been identified by Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) as the site “that are actively engaging American voters' groups by both political parties with polarising messages on issues such as American candidates for president, LGBTQ's rights, and the Israeli-Hamas<4> conflict.
In a report August 9th, MTAC singled out three sites by name: Even Polytics.com], Nio Tenker [niothiner. com] and Savannah Time [savannahtime.com].
With Trump and Harris in the tight race 11 weeks before the vote, Even Polytics is publishing content focused on the ongoing struggle in Gaza, alleged threats against democracy and the influence of religious groups. Most of the content on the page seemed to be directed against Trump.
Neo Thinker, who appeared immediately after the start of the Gaza War in October, has since shifted his focus from that conflict in the US elections.
Its content is adapted to the liberal “ex1> with <x2ercastic and long-standing sarcastics that insult Trump”, according to the MTAC, including one that calls it “elephnes with opioid pills at China's MAGA store”.
The site also attacks Harris for allegedly steadfast support for Israel, and vice presidential candidates from both sides, and pumps gasoline on hot topics such as corporate and immigration influence.
An article presented as a column asks “Why did Harris' attitude towards Palestine cost her by my vote”. A story titled “J.D. Vance And The Rese of the Sperm Cups” mocks Trump's nomination for vice president, because of his stance on the “family values”, which he described as “billy with a return direction to the years 50”.
And another written by the “the perspective of an FBI agent” claims Harris' elected vice president, Tim Walz, has a “long connection with China and its Government.
The third website, Savannah Time, is represented as originally from Savanah City in the key state of Georgia. The site, according to Darren Linville, co-director of the Watt Family Legal Media Innovation Centre, is clearly intended to appeal to the right, with scriptures attacking Harris and her supporters.
Harris ' economic policies are often criticized by Savannah Time. In one scripture, it describes them as the reckless fiscal economy that would even make a drunken sailor fry”. Another charges him with a dangerous <x2 flirt with controlling communist style prices”.
Most of the articles published by the three pages are written by “stafi” and the Open AI artificial intelligence research company said in a 16 August report that Storm-2035 strongly supports ChatGPT to produce content.
Experts suggest that in many ways Iran's approach to influence the US election system is a copy of that of Russia, which used false profiles to flood social media with dezinforms and divisive content during the 2016 presidential elections, widely favouring Trump against the Democrat candidate, Hillary Clinton.
“What we've seen from these websites suggests a kind of Russian-style [field], where they've created websites that target communities on the left and right”, Linville said.
“ [They want] maybe to use those websites to target these communities to spread deninforms and perhaps to make our policy more extreme than it would have been, and to influence us to argue with each other more easily”, he added.
Linville also said that Iranian websites in some ways exceed Russian and that they have improved over the years.
“They're really built extremely well. Clearly, they use AI in very interesting ways to create their own material”, Linville said.
Iranian efforts to influence the US election process have been noted since 2018, when nonautics were used to imitate candidates for the US House of Representatives and to appear as journalists, according to specialists from the firm against cyber threats Mandiant.
Analysts suggest the campaign increased following the murder of IRC Commander Qasem Solejmani, in an American air strike in Iraq in January 2020, when Trump was president.
Two Iranian citizens, for example, were accused of involvement in a cyber campaign to influence American voters in the 2020 elections, which Trump lost to President Joe Biden.
Mandiant stressed that Iranian actors sent threatening emails to voters in the United States during the 2020 campaign. Mandiant and other cyber experts also said Iran used media sites such as Even Politicals to try to influence mid-term elections in 2022.
In addition to using media platforms, American intelligence agencies and cyber threats experts say Iran is currently using halving attacks and retaliatory, in a bid to undermine the vote in the November presidential elections.
Trump's campaign on August 10th blamed the Iranian Government for punishing some of its domestic communications, prompting a federal investigation.
A joint assessment by three American intelligence organs, published on August 19th, confirmed that “has increased Iranian aggressive activities during this election cycle”, including recently reported <x2 operations to compromise the campaign of former President Trump”.
In view of Soleimen's murder, the US unilateral decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Iran and worsening relations during the Trump administration, many experts say Tehran does not want Trump back to the White House.
Trump's campaign suggested that cyber attacks on it, which he blamed Iran, occurred due to hostilities with Tehran in the past.
However, there was also the campaign by Harris.
The joint report of American intelligence this month also said it was convinced that <x0 minors, through social engineering and other efforts, have tried to provide access to individuals who have direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties”.
Tehran has ordered the republican and democratic camps because “Iran is looking for ways to cause disagreement and division among the various voter communities”, Kargar said.
Russia did the same in 2016, Kargar added.
The main question is whether Iran's campaign has had any impact on these choices that are already divisive in itself.
Little is known about cyberattacks confirmed by American intelligence, although Trump wrote on social networks that hackers “were able to get only published data”, while American media did not publish documents from the Trump campaign that were anonymously sent.
In the case of Iran's campaign nonautical websites through Storm-2035, Linville says that “nobody is talking about to”.
The “seems likely to have been made for future purposes to help a campaign in the future, which has not yet started”, he said.
Such campaigns usually have a very specific purpose, or specific story, which the actor wants to spread, Lyville said, adding that “but, we can't say what that might be.
Linville said he expects this to be clarified with the approach of elections. / REL
