Intelligence groups say Iran behind hacking attempts in Biden-Harris and Trump campaign

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies said they have confirmed that Iran was behind the hacking attempt into former President Donald Trump's and the Biden-Harris campaigns.

The statement from the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence comes after Trump’s campaign said earlier this month that some internal documents and communications had been hacked and leaked to a news organization.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign also said it was the target of an unsuccessful “spear phishing” attack aimed at breaching its firewall, the Washington Post reported.

“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting Presidential campaigns,” the statement says. “This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC (intelligence community) attributes to Iran.”

The agencies also wrote that their group is confident Iran has “through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the Presidential campaigns of both political parties.”

Iran's mission to the United Nations said in an emailed statement that "such allegations are unsubstantiated and devoid of any standing."

"As we have previously announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran harbors neither the intention nor the motive to interfere with the U.S. presidential election," the statement said. "Should the U.S. government genuinely believe in the validity of its claims, it should furnish us with the pertinent evidence—if any—to which we will respond accordingly."

Contributing: Josh Meyer, Dan Morrison

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FBI concludes Iran behind hacking attempt in Trump campaign