April 25, 2024 at 05:11PM
Cyber threats to elections are increasingly complex, with attackers combining tactics like DDoS attacks, fake news, and leaks. Mandiant’s report highlights how these combined attacks can magnify each other’s impact. Chained cyberattacks have disrupted elections in Ukraine and targeted US states’ voting-related websites. Not only state-sponsored actors, but also insiders, hacktivists, and cybercriminals are posing threats to the democratic process. This is illustrated by the proliferation of fake social media accounts and websites related to presidential campaigns, which can spread scams, malware, and fake news.
The meeting notes highlight the evolving landscape of cyber threats targeting elections, from simple methods like using easily guessed passwords to the more sophisticated, chained attacks observed today. These attacks involve a combination of tactics such as DDoS attacks, hacking into election infrastructure, leaking sensitive information, and spreading disinformation through fake websites and social media accounts. The examples cited include the Russian cyber onslaught during Ukraine’s presidential elections and the campaign against US states’ voting-related websites carried out by Iranian nationals in 2020. The notes also emphasize the role of cybercriminals, insiders, and hacktivists in further complicating the security of democratic processes.
It’s clear from the meeting notes that the threat landscape is constantly evolving, and that a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity is essential to safeguard democratic processes from these increasingly sophisticated and multifaceted cyber threats.