FBI accuses Iran of threatening US election officials

Authorities said individuals associated with the Iranian regime operated several sites after the election, including one titled “enemies of the people”, which contained personal information and photos of government and private sector officials involved in managing the 2020 election in the U.S.

Among the online targets was Christopher Krebs, former head of the United States Agency for Infrastructure and Cybersecurity, a person familiar with the FBI investigation told CNN.

Krebs made news after the 2020 election by publicly refuting the false claims of President Donald Trump and other Republican officials that there was mass electoral fraud associated with the election. After verifying the facts of Trump’s conspiracy theories, Krebs was fired from his post in the Department of Homeland Security.

Krebs’ online attack by Iranian cyber attackers was first reported by The Washington Post, which also identified FBI director Christopher Wray as one of the U.S. government officials targeted online.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on the identities of US election officials threatened by Iran.

In its statement on Wednesday, publicly calling on the Iranian regime, the FBI said: “The post-election creation of the People’s Enemies website demonstrates a continuing Iranian intention to create divisions and distrust in the United States and undermine public confidence in the Electoral Process. from the USA. “

Wednesday’s announcement was not the first time the U.S. government has blamed Iran for the nefarious 2020 election activity.

As CNN previously reported, at a press conference at FBI headquarters in October, Wray and the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, announced that Iran and Russia had obtained registration information from US voters in an effort to interfere in the election. The Iranian regime has been accused of impersonating the far-right group Proud Boys to send intimidating emails to voters.
In a cybersecurity bulletin sent to government agencies and private industry after the October press conference, the FBI and DHS accused Iran of creating “fictional media sites and falsifying legitimate media sites to spread US voter registration data. , anti-American propaganda and misinformation about voter suppression, electoral fraud and electoral fraud. “

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