Russian and Iranian Organizations Banned for Interfering with Elections Through Artificial Intelligence and Cyberattacks

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on two entities in Iran and Russia for their attempts to interfere with the November 2024 presidential election. The entities, a subordinate organization of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a Moscow-based affiliate of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), aimed to influence the electoral outcome and divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns.

In August 2024, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) jointly accused Iran of attempting to undermine democratic processes, including by orchestrating cyber operations designed to gain access to sensitive information related to the elections. Meta revealed that it blocked WhatsApp accounts used by Iranian threat actors to target individuals in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the U.K., and the U.S. An IRGC-affiliated hacking crew, codenamed Charming Kitten, was responsible for the campaign.

The Treasury Department also sanctioned seven individuals for conducting spear-phishing, hack-and-leak operations, as well as interfering with political campaigns in 2020 and 2024. U.S. sanctions have recently targeted the Cognitive Design Production Center (CDPC), a subsidiary of the IRGC, for allegedly planning influence operations aimed at inciting socio-political tensions ahead of the 2024 elections.

OFAC also sanctions the Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE), collaborating directly with a GRU unit that conducts sabotage, political interference operations, and cyber warfare against the West. Allegations suggest that GRU officer Valery Mikhaylovich Korovin has been conducting clandestine influence operations against the U.S. elections since at least 2024.