OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Officials have said that the 2020 presidential election was the most secure election in the history of our nation, but new evidence shows that may not be as correct as they want it to be.
The Department of Justice has just indicted two Iranians who, it claims, successfully hacked into, at least, one state’s voter registration database and used the information to intimidate voters.
The DOJ indictment said:
An indictment was unsealed in New York today charging two Iranian nationals for their involvement in a cyber-enabled campaign to intimidate and influence American voters, and otherwise undermine voter confidence and sow discord, in connection with the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
According to court documents, Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi (سید محمد حسین موسی کاظمی), aka Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazem, aka Hosein Zamani, 24, and Sajjad Kashian (سجاد کاشیان), aka Kiarash Nabavi, 27, both of Iran, obtained confidential U.S. voter information from at least one state election website; sent threatening email messages to intimidate and interfere with voters; created and disseminated a video containing disinformation about purported election infrastructure vulnerabilities; attempted to access, without authorization, several states’ voting-related websites; and successfully gained unauthorized access to a U.S. media company’s computer network that, if not for successful FBI and victim company efforts to mitigate, would have provided the conspirators another vehicle to disseminate false claims after the election.
“This indictment details how two Iran-based actors waged a targeted, coordinated campaign to erode confidence in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and to sow discord among Americans,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said. “The allegations illustrate how foreign disinformation campaigns operate and seek to influence the American public. The Department is committed to exposing and disrupting malign foreign influence efforts using all available tools, including criminal charges.”
In addition to hacking into a voter database, the Iranians also used a fake video to make it appear as though ballots were being fictitiously created.
“As alleged, Kazemi and Kashian were part of a coordinated conspiracy in which Iranian hackers sought to undermine faith and confidence in the U.S. presidential election,” Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in the indictment. “Working with others, Kazemi and Kashian accessed voter information from at least one state’s voter database, threatened U.S. voters via email, and even disseminated a fictitious video that purported to depict actors fabricating overseas ballots. The United States will never tolerate any foreign actors’ attempts to undermine our free and democratic elections. As a result of the charges unsealed today, and the concurrent efforts of our U.S. government partners, Kazemi and Kashian will forever look over their shoulders as we strive to bring them to justice.”
The FBI said that it was able to thwart the efforts of these nefarious actors.
“The FBI remains committed to countering malicious cyber activity targeting our democratic process,” Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division said. “Working rapidly with our private sector and U.S. government partners and ahead of the election, we were able to disrupt and mitigate this malicious activity – and then to enable today’s joint, sequenced operations against the adversary. Today’s announcement shows what we can accomplish as a community and a country when we work together, and the FBI will continue to do its part to keep our democracy safe.”
But they still were able to hack into a state’s voter database and access voter information, which goes against the narrative said by ex-Cyber-Security and Infrastructure Agency Chief Chris Krebs on “60 Minutes.”
“There was no indication or evidence that there was any sort of hacking or compromise of election systems on, before or after November 3,” he said, which now appears not to be the case.
