Security agencies warn election officials to prepare for attacks on US presidential election

Washington—

U.S. intelligence and security agencies are trying to prepare election officials for a wave of new attacks aimed at destroying voter confidence in the November presidential election, just as a series of reports warn that some already known adversaries They are beginning to intensify their efforts.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the FBI, issued a new warning on Wednesday that “the usual suspects” (Russia, China and Iran) are looking for forms for stoke tensions and divide voters Americans.

The three countries, according to the guide, are “leveraging influence operations that exploit perceived sociopolitical divisions to undermine trust in America's democratic institutions.”

The new guidance warned that the three countries are using fake online accounts and various proxies, including state-sponsored media organizations, to spread disinformation and sow doubts.

He also warned that Russia, China and Iran are using real people, including social media influencers, “to promote, consciously or unconsciously, their narratives.”

“The electoral process is the golden thread of American democracy, which is why our foreign adversaries deliberately attack our electoral infrastructure with their influence operations,” Cait Conley, senior advisor at CISA, said in a statement to reporters. “CISA is committed to doing its part to ensure that these officials [estatales y locales] and the American public do not have to fight this battle alone.

The agency warns of new tactics.

The latest guidance, posted on CISA's website, warns that in addition to resorting to familiar tactics, Russia, China and Iran will likely employ new tricks to try to confuse American voters and erode confidence in the electoral process.

One of those techniques is voice cloning: using a false recording of an official or public figure in an attempt to cause confusion. The agencies cited an example from last year's elections in the Slovak Republic, when a fake recording of a key party leader purported to show him discussing how to manipulate the vote.

The guidance also warned that Iran could attempt to employ “hack and leak” cyber attacks on the United States, using lessons learned from similar operations against Israel in recent months.

And he said Russia and China have separately tried to cause alarm among voters by disseminating fake documents that purportedly show evidence of security incidents affecting physical buildings or computer systems.

China denies the accusations

“China has always adhered to non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said in an email to the VOA.

“Speculating or accusing China of using social media to interfere in US politics is completely baseless and malicious,” Liu added.
The VOA He also contacted representatives of the Russian and Iranian governments, who have not yet responded.

For now, CISA, ODNI, and the FBI are advising U.S. election officials that they can attempt to mitigate the impact of election meddling attempts by creating trusted portals for information, such as official U.S. government websites, and proactively debunking false information.

But the challenge is likely to grow.

Russia is already interfering, says Microsoft

Tech giant Microsoft warned Wednesday that it is seeing signs that Russia, at least, is already stepping up its election interference efforts.
“The usual actors influencing the Russian elections were put into action over the past 45 days,” according to a report from Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center.

The Russian effort so far, the report said, “employs a combination of 2020 themes with a renewed focus on undermining US support for Ukraine.”

Microsoft also warned that Russia, China and Iran have “leveraged some form of generative AI.” [inteligencia artificial] to create content since last summer.

“We anticipate that electoral influence campaigns will include deepfakes (some will be deep, others will be superficial) and the simplest manipulations, not the most complex employment of AI, will likely be the content that will have the greatest impact,” the report adds.

At the same time, there is concern about the impact of domestic extremists in the presidential elections.

“There is a serious risk of extremist violence,” the Council on Foreign Relations wrote in a report released Wednesday.

“While the risk of far-right electoral violence is greater, the possibility of far-left violence cannot be ruled out,” he said, noting the possibility of attacks on pre-election political events or meetings, on polling places during election day. elections, and against electoral offices in the days following the election.

These warnings are consistent with those issued by US officials in recent months.

“Some DVE [extremistas violentos domésticos]particularly those motivated by Conspiracy theories and anti-government or partisan grievances, may attempt to disrupt electoral processes,” the US Department of Homeland Security warned in a threat assessment published last September.

“Violence or threats could be directed at government officials, voters, and election-related personnel and infrastructure, including polling places, drop box locations, voter registration sites, campaign events, political party offices and vote counting sites,” he said.

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