Microsoft warns of increased Iranian efforts to interfere in US elections

Fake news sites, hacking, cyber attacks -- Iran is ramping up efforts to influence US elections this fall, Microsoft said Friday, following warnings from American officials about the threat of foreign interference.

Among the Iranian-built sites masquerading as news portals are "Nio Thinker," which has a left-leaning stance and frequently insults former president Donald Trump, and another aimed at conservative audiences called "Savannah Time" which focuses on Republican politics and LGBTQ issues, the tech giant said in a report.

The sites appear to be plagiarizing some of their content from US publications using artificial intelligence tools, the report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) added.

Groups linked to the Iranian government have "laid the groundwork for influence campaigns on trending election-related topics and begun to activate these campaigns in an apparent effort to stir up controversy or sway voters -– especially in swing states," said Clint Watts, MTAC's general manager.

"They've launched operations that Microsoft assesses are designed to gain intelligence on political campaigns and help enable them to influence the elections in the future."

Since March, a separate Iran-linked group has been impersonating social and political activists online, setting itself up for extreme activities including intimidation or inciting violence against political figures, the report said.

The ultimate goal of the group appears to be inciting chaos and sowing doubt about election integrity, it added.

Another Iranian group linked with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard compromised the email account of a former advisor to a presidential campaign.

That account was used to send a phishing email to a senior official involved in the campaign in a bid to intercept other messages, the report said.

One other Iranian group managed to compromise an account belonging to "a county-level government employee in a swing state," the report said, adding that it was difficult to identify its motives.

US officials have warned of efforts by foreign powers, including Russia and Iran, to meddle in the November election.

Earlier this year, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned that Iran was becoming "increasingly aggressive" in its influence efforts, seeking to stoke discord and undermine democratic institutions as it has done in prior election cycles.

Last month, the Justice Department said the United States had disrupted a Russian disinformation campaign involving an AI-powered "bot farm" used to create fake profiles on the social media platform X.

The campaign -- aimed at sowing "discord" in the United States and other countries -- was developed by a senior editor of RT, a Russian state-owned media outlet, financed by the Kremlin and aided by an officer of Russia's FSB security service, it added.