The Iranian Cyber Threat: Iranians Indicted for Cyber Operations to Influence the 2020 Presidential Election

By Paul Davis

While most of the attention has been on Russian interference in the 2020 election, a federal indictment this past November zeroed in on Iran’s cyber operations.

An indictment unsealed in New York on November 21st charged two Iranian nationals with involvement in a cyber-enabled campaign to intimidate and influence American voters, and undermine voter confidence, as well as sow discord, in connection with the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Asst. A.G. Matthew Olsen

FBI Assist Dir Bryan Vorndran

According to Court documents, Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi, aka Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazem, aka Hosein Zamani, 24, and Sajjad Kashaian, aka Kiarash Nabavi, 27, 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...