WASHINGTON — With less than three months before the U.S. election, Iran is intensifying its efforts to meddle in American politics, U.S. officials and private cybersecurity firms say, with the suspected hack of Donald Trump's campaign being only the latest and most brazen example.
Iran has long been described as a ''chaos agent'' when it comes to cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns and in recent months groups linked to the government in Tehran have covertly encouraged protests over Israel's war in Gaza, impersonated American activists and created networks of fake news websites and social media accounts primed to spread false and misleading information to audiences in the U.S.
While Russia and China remain bigger cyber threats against the U.S., experts and intelligence officials say Iran's increasingly aggressive stance marks a significant escalation of efforts to confuse, deceive and frighten American voters ahead of the election.
The pace will likely continue to increase as the election nears and America's adversaries exploit the internet and advancements in artificial intelligence to sow discord and confusion.
''We're starting to really see that uptick and it makes sense, 90 days out from the election,'' said Sean Minor, a former information warfare expert for the U.S. Army who now analyzes online threats for the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, which has seen a sharp increase in cyber operations from Iran and other nations. ''As we get closer, we suspect that these networks will get more aggressive.''
The FBI is investigating the suspected hack of the Trump campaign as well as efforts to infiltrate the campaign of President Joe Biden, which became Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign when Biden dropped out. Trump's campaign announced Saturday that someone illegally accessed and retrieved internal documents, later distributed to three news outlets. The campaign blamed Iran, noting a recent Microsoft report revealing an attempt by Iranian military intelligence to hack into the systems of one of the presidential campaigns.
''A lot of people think it was Iran. Probably was,'' Trump said Tuesday on Univision before shrugging off the value of the leaked material. ''I think it's pretty boring information.''
Iran has denied any involvement in the hack and said it has no interest in meddling with U.S. politics.