COMMENT
Foreign adversaries have been trying to disrupt American elections through various methods for years. This includes espionage and “hack and leak” campaigns that steal sensitive data and then amplify it in public forums. Today, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is altering the battlefield for attacks and, in the modern information ecosystem where misinformation and disinformation can spread rapidly, has the potential to transform geopolitics.
During my 24-year career with the FBI, I witnessed sophisticated adversaries attempt to sow confusion and paralyze networks, while cyber threat actors developed tools and tactics to destabilize businesses, governments, and more. THE Malicious use and proliferation of GenAI in 2024 represents one of the most difficult challenges we will face in an election year.
The adversaries continue their path towards disorder and dismantling
Nation-state adversaries affiliated with and tied to the motivations of foreign governments have the resources to scale operations and pose a constant threat to democracy. As we saw above, this is likely to be the case threat actors from China, Russia and Iran (charged for shipping Fake and intimidating emails to US voters in 2020) will try to interfere with the 2024 US elections.
Adversaries could seek to target election infrastructure itself, including the hardware and software used to count and transmit votes, as well as political campaign assets. While some actors have exploited information operations, generative AI is poised to increase the attractiveness of this malicious activity. With GenAI, it is easier than ever for threat actors to create content and influence narratives that support their underlying goals and objectives. This, in turn, can undermine public trust and perceptions of political issues, parties and candidates.
In fact, we are already starting to see the impacts. Threat actors from China have recently weaponized deepfakes Taiwan elections, with the aim of increasing the voting public’s trust in candidates who are more diplomatic towards China. Information campaigns fabricated by state-linked entities will not be new in 2024; however, generative AI will make it infinitely harder to decipher what is real or not.
The rise of GenAI has also lowered the barrier of entry for virtually anyone to interfere with elections. Less sophisticated hackers or hacktivists with a specific geopolitical goal may be able to create high-quality disinformation campaigns with relative ease. We have already seen a local magician made global headlines this year using artificial intelligence to create fake robocalls, and it’s only April.
Counter these growing threats
So, what can be done? When it comes to protecting different electoral systems, it is crucial to apply a risk-aware approach. At the heart of this is hardening environments to protect systems and block breaches, continuous 24/7 monitoring of systems, and in-depth visibility into critical risk areas, including endpoint, cloud and identity . Using both threat hunting and threat intelligence is equally important, as these tools help you proactively protect yourself from adversaries who may attempt to penetrate your networks.
State and local election administration bodies have improved their security in recent election cycles. Political parties and electoral bodies did the same. But further attention and investment are needed.
Regarding information operations, we must continue to raise awareness. Defense against this threat begins with vigilance on the part of everyone. Citizens must be alert and validate the origin of the information they are consuming, consider the political position and objective of the source, and attempt to validate the information through trusted sources before amplifying it. All Americans have a crucial role to play in critically analyzing the information they receive and, more importantly, share
Social media companies and GenAI companies should work to detect and prevent the use of their tools and platform by threat actors. At a minimum this means cooperating with each other where appropriate and working with cybersecurity companies and IT vendors who have experience monitoring these groups.
In 2024, voters in all 50 states and 55 countries will participate in elections, providing numerous opportunities for adversaries with various motivations to disrupt and dismantle trust in democracy. With proper cybersecurity awareness, preparation, and best practices in place, we can take a big step forward in defending democracy in the digital age. Not doing so could be catastrophic.