Iran to blame for hack of Trump's campaign: officials

US intelligence officials say Iran is responsible for the hack of Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

It was the first US government attribution of responsibility for a cyber intrusion that the Republican nominee had previously linked to Tehran.

The FBI and other federal agencies said Iran perceived this year's presidential election to be particularly consequential and was determined through the hacking operation and other activities to interfere in American politics and "to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions."

"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," said a joint statement from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Iran, the US statement said, also has targeted the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is to officially accept the Democratic Party's presidential nomination at this week's convention.

Iran's mission to the United Nations issued a statement calling the allegations "unsubstantiated and devoid of any standing. As we have previously announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran harbours neither the intention nor the motive to interfere with the US presidential election."

The US statement said Iran has conducted influence operations targeting the American public in a bid to fan political divisions and "cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns."

"This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former president Trump's campaign, which the IC (intelligence community) attributes to Iran," it continued.

It said the intelligence community is confident Iranian operatives using social engineering and other means "sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both parties," the statement said.

Those activities included thefts and disclosures "intended to influence the US election process," the statement added, without elaborating.

The confirmation of Iranian involvement backs up previous statements by Google, which said an Iranian group linked to the Revolutionary Guard tried to infiltrate the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen people linked to US President Joe Biden and Trump since May.

with Reuters