The United States Department of Justice released the indictment against two Iranian citizens on Thursday for “their participation in a cyber campaign to intimidate and influence American voters, undermine trust and sow discord among voters” during the election campaign of 2020.
Between August and November 2020, Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian allegedly obtained voter information from at least one statewide election website and then used that information to send threatening emails, according to a press release.
The document cites that the defendants attempted to access other state websites. They are also accused of allegedly creating and distributing a video with “misinformation about alleged vulnerabilities of the electoral infrastructure.”
They also allegedly “successfully obtained” unauthorized access to the computer network of a US media company, which the Justice Department says the two could have used to distribute more disinformation about the elections. Plans that were hampered by the FBI and the media entity’s cybersecurity efforts.
Attorney General Matthew Olsen, of the Justice Department’s Division of Homeland Security, explained that the allegations “illustrate how foreign disinformation campaigns operate and seek to influence the American public.”
The charges against the two include “conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, intimidate voters and transmit interstate threats.”
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