Iranian-aligned hackers threatened to leak more emails hacked from inner circle of President Donald Trump, such as White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Roger Stone, following the release of a previous batch of them to the media ahead of the US presidential election in 2024.
CISA Labels Operation a “Calculated Smear Campaign”
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency took to X to describe the threats, which were first reported by Reuters, as a “calculated smear campaign”. This comes as the Trump administration issued a report, warning that “Iranian Cyber Actors” might target American companies and “operators of critical infrastructure.”
Three days ago, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, said that US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear installations did not severely damage the nation’s nuclear installations, leading Trump to declare he was cancelling plans to potentially ease sanctions on Iran.
Hacker “Robert” Claims Possession of 100GB of Private Emails
During the weekend, in Sunday and Monday online chat, hackers operating under the identity “Robert” told Reuters that they possessed about 100 gigabytes of emails containing Wiles, Stone, former porn star Stormy Daniels, Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan, and several others.
Though they never shared details of the content, they stated the potential for selling the emails.
In a September indictment against three Iranians in the 2024 Trump cyberattack case, the Justice Department asserted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps control the hacking campaign “Robert”.
CISA Spokesperson: Digital Smear Meant to Discredit Trump
While CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy responded to Reuters report that a “hostile foreign adversary” was “potentially threatening to illegally exploit allegedly stolen and unverified content in an attempt to distract, discredit and divide.”
The “so-called cyber ‘attack’ is simply propaganda in the digital age and the targets are no accident” and its objective is to “harm President Trump and discredit upright public servants” who have made themselves outstanding in the US.
In the meantime, US Attorney General Pam Bondi condemned the hacking as “an unconscionable cyber-attack”.
FBI Pledges Full Investigation into Trump-Linked National Security Breach
FBI Director Kash Patel stated that anyone connected to any national security breach would be fully investigated and carried out to the highest extent of the law, the White House and FBI reported.
Iran proved to be a larger threat throughout the 2024 presidential campaign than Russia, well documented for its powerful propaganda efforts and 2016 cyberattacks of prominent US political parties, reports Sam Sabin of Axios.
Microsoft: Iran Ran Phishing, Disinformation Campaigns
Microsoft found several Iranian entities that were carrying out aggressive phishing and disinformation operations to influence the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election.
Prior to the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict, which ended in a ceasefire mediated by Trump after the US military intervention, the hackers assured Reuters that they had no intention to carry out any more cyberattacks.
“I am retired, man,” the hackers claimed in May.
