US officials confirm Iranian hackers meddled in election, accessed voter data

Iranian hackers sent threatening emails to Americans ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Now authorities have confirmed the hackers did more than that.

The FBI have revealed that Iranian hackers have successfully stolen US voter data just days before the US presidential election.

The FBI and Homeland Security also confirmed on Friday that a wave of threatening emails sent to Democratic voters pretending to be far-right activists also originated from an Iranian IP address.

It’s caused concerns about meddling in the US presidential election, which is happening next Tuesday, November 3.

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An election worker displays the "Hamilton"-themed "I Voted" stickers at the vote centre for the US presidential election at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, California on October 30, 2020. Picture: Robyn Beck / AFP

Last week, thousands of Democratic voters received threatening emails in their inbox.

Labelled an “intimidation campaign” by experts, the emails claimed to be from the right-wing US militia group, the Proud Boys.

The emails contained a video where a hacker showed how to break into voter registrations.

Experts said although the video was fake and did not truly hack into voter registrations, it served to undermine the integrity of the election.

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People cast their ballots on the first day of early voting at the Union Station in Los Angeles, California, on October 24 2020. Picture: Valerie Macon / AFP

At the same time, hackers probed the election websites of ten US states.

In one state, they found a weakness in the website and were able to access voter registration data.

The FBI confirmed on Friday that “the actor successfully obtained voter registration data in at least one state.”

Although US officials didn’t name which state was compromised, Reuters reported the emails included personal information about voters in Alaska, indicating that could be the state.

US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Iran was behind the breaches.

Officials said there was overlap in IP addresses, IP ranges, virtual private network exit nodes, and other technical data indicating it came from Iran.