Microsoft said on Friday that Iranian hackers, with apparent backing from the government, had made more than 2,700 attempts to identify the email accounts of current and former United States government officials, journalists covering political campaigns and email accounts associated with a presidential campaign.

One of Iran’s specialties is the so-called wiper attacks, in which malicious software erases the hard drives of infected computers. Those include a massive 2012 hack that reportedly debilitated an estimated 30,000 computers of the Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco.

In the early summer, Iran carried out a couple of terrorist attacks on which they placed limpet mines on two oil tankers transiting through the Strait of Hormuz and the other the downing of a US drone. Then in the fall, Houthi rebels took credit for drone attacks on the Saudi oil facilities of Saudi Aramco in the hope of cutting the amount of oil they produced for export.

In a retaliatory response to the attacks on the oil tankers and the drone attack, the US carried out a cyberattack against Iranian intelligence infrastructure.