US officials spot huge wave of foreign meddling before November election
Foreign powers step-up their attempts to influence upcoming US presidential election through various tech-based methods. Security experts warn about increased risks in the post-election period
US security experts notice a big rise in foreign attempts to mess with the upcoming presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Countries like China Iran and Russia are using new-tech tricks to spread false info (which is getting harder to spot)
The election is not over the night of Nov. 5‚ it is very likely there will be close races that require the paper record to be counted and recounted and audited to ensure accuracy
The time right after voting ends could be extra-risky; foreign players might try to create doubt about vote counting. Jen Easterly and Cait Conley from CISA point out that these countries use smart tricks to make fake news look real - like setting-up websites that seem to be local news outlets
Election workers face a tough job this year: they need to deal with both foreign tricks and home-grown problems. Jennifer Morrell who runs Elections Group says its getting way worse than before; describing the situation as a non-stop flood of wrong info and mean messages
To make things better CISA has checked voting places across the country. They found that 97% of voting happens offline; and every vote leaves a paper trail. However security experts worry that some foreign players might try to do cyber-attacks — but the real danger is how these tricks could make people angry and not trust the results
The whole thing gets more complex because of how it connects with US politics. While theres no proof that Trump works with foreign players‚ both often push the same idea: that the election might not be fair. Some people close to the ex-president are already making plans for jan-6 2025 when Congress checks the results
