COMMENTARY
International adversaries have tried to disrupt the US elections for years by varied strategies. This contains espionage and “hack and leak” campaigns that steal delicate knowledge and later amplify it in public boards. Right this moment, generative AI (GenAI) is altering the battlefield for assaults, and within the trendy info ecosystem the place misinformation and disinformation can unfold quickly, it has the potential to rework geopolitics.
All through my 24-year profession with the FBI, I witnessed subtle adversaries try to sow confusion and cripple networks, as cyber-threat actors developed instruments and techniques to disrupt companies, governments, and extra. The malicious use and proliferation of GenAI in 2024 presents one of many hardest challenges we’ll face in an election 12 months.
Adversaries Proceed on Their Path to Disrupt and Dismantle
Nation-state adversaries affiliated with and tied to the motivations of overseas governments have the assets to scale operations, and pose a relentless menace to democracy. As we have seen beforehand, it is probably that menace actors from China, Russia, and Iran (charged for sending pretend, intimidating emails to US voters in 2020) will search to intervene with the 2024 US election.
Adversaries could search to focus on precise election infrastructure itself, together with the {hardware} and software program used to tally and transmit votes, in addition to political marketing campaign property. Whereas some actors have leveraged info operations, generative AI is poised to extend the attractiveness of this malicious exercise. With GenAI, it’s simpler than ever for menace actors to create content material and affect narratives that assist their underlying objectives and aims. This, in flip, can undermine public confidence and perceptions of political points, events, and candidates.
In actual fact, we’re already beginning to see the impacts. Menace actors from China lately weaponized deepfakes forward of Taiwan’s election, aiming to extend the voting public’s confidence in candidates extra diplomatic to China. Fabricated info campaigns stemming from state-nexus entities won’t be novel in 2024; nevertheless, generative AI will make deciphering what’s actual or not infinitely tougher.
The rise of GenAI has additionally lowered the barrier of entry for just about anybody to intervene with elections. Much less subtle hackers or hacktivists with a particular geopolitical purpose could possibly create high-quality disinformation campaigns with relative ease. We have already seen a neighborhood magician make world headlines this 12 months through the use of AI to create pretend robocalls, and it is solely April.
Countering These Rising Threats
So, what might be accomplished? On the subject of defending the disparate election techniques, it’s essential to use a risk-informed strategy. On the coronary heart of that is hardening environments to guard techniques and cease breaches, 24/7 steady monitoring of techniques, and deep visibility into essential areas of threat, together with endpoints, cloud, and id. Using each menace searching and menace intelligence is equally as necessary, as these instruments assist to proactively defend in opposition to adversaries who could try to penetrate networks.
State and native elections administration entities have improved their safety over the previous a number of election cycles. So too have political events and marketing campaign entities. However further consideration and funding is warranted.
With respect to info operations, we should proceed to boost consciousness. Defending in opposition to this menace begins with vigilance from everybody. Residents should be on alert and validate the origin of data they’re consuming, think about the supply’s political stance and goal, and try to validate info by trusted sources previous to amplifying it. All People have an important position to play in critically analyzing the data they’re getting and, extra importantly, sharing
Social media corporations and GenAI corporations ought to work to detect and stop menace actors’ use of their instruments and platform. At a minimal this implies cooperating with one another the place acceptable and collaborating with cybersecurity corporations and IT suppliers which have expertise monitoring these teams.
In 2024, voters in all 50 states and throughout 55 international locations will take part in elections, offering quite a few alternatives for adversaries with varied motivations to disrupt and dismantle confidence in democracy. With correct consciousness, preparation, and cybersecurity greatest practices in place, we are able to take a giant step ahead in defending democracy within the digital age. Failure to take action may very well be catastrophic.
