The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have released a joint statement to assure the populace that election results will be unaffected and election integrity will be maintained despite threats of attacks on the voting systems.
"With election day less than 100 days away, it is important to help put into context some of the incidents the American public may see during the election cycle that, while potentially causing some minor disruptions, will not fundamentally impact the security or integrity of the democratic process," said CISA Senior Advisor Cait Conley. She added that distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are one example of a tactic they've seen used against election infrastructure in the past and will likely see again in the future.
"They may cause some minor disruptions or prevent the public from receiving timely information. It is important to talk about these potential issues now, because nefarious actors, like our foreign adversaries or cybercriminals, could use DDoS incidents to cast doubt on the election systems or processes."
The FBI is responsible for investigating and prosecuting election crimes and malicious cyber activity targeting election infrastructure. The CISA plays a role in securing election infrastructure from physical and cyber threats.
American broadcaster Emerald Robinson announced the CISA and FBI bulletin on X, claiming the possible delayed or untimely information of 2024 election details due to cyberattacks. She warned that these were the same agencies that claimed that America's voting machines were never connected to the internet.
"Is the warning perhaps not what it seems? Is it an attempt to provide camouflage – a strategy known as 'pre-bunking' – for future election interference sanctioned by the Democrat-powered Washington political machine a.k.a. the Deep State that wants to maintain control of the White House and Congress at any cost?" LifeSiteNews' Doug Mainwaring wrote in an Aug. 5 article.
In 2017, Acting Under Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications at the Department of Homeland Security Jeanette Manfra, who was responsible for the security of the nation's voting system, told Congress that the voting machines "are not connected to the internet." However, as per a 2020 report by NBC News, a team of 10 cybersecurity experts who specialize in voting systems and elections found nearly three dozen U.S. voting systems connected to the internet.
"We found over 35 voting systems had been left online and we're continuing to find more," Kevin Skoglund, a senior technical adviser at the election security advocacy group National Election Defense Coalition, told the news agency at the time. "We kept hearing from election officials that voting machines were never on the internet and we knew that wasn't true. And so we set out to try and find the voting machines to see if we could find them on the internet and especially the back-end systems that voting machines in the precinct were connecting to report their results." (Related: STEAL PLOT? Federal agencies warn cyberattacks could affect election infrastructure but claim they won't compromise voting integrity.)
Microsoft confirms Iran's cyberattack plans on U.S. election systems
As if to confirm the two agencies' warning, Microsoft released a report on Aug. 9, claiming that Iran was laying the groundwork to sway voters ahead of the U.S. presidential election by reportedly creating fake news sites and impersonating activists online.
The findings in Microsoft's intelligence report showed how Iran is evolving its tactics for another election that's likely to have global implications. It also gave specific examples of Iranian groups and the actions they have taken so far.
First, a group linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard in June targeted a high-ranking U.S. presidential campaign official with a phishing email, a form of cyberattack often used to gather sensitive information, according to the report. In a separate example, an Iranian group has been creating websites that pose as U.S.-based news sites targeted to voters on opposite sides of the political spectrum, the report said.
Microsoft also found that Iranian groups are impersonating U.S. activists, potentially laying the groundwork for influence operations closer to the election. Finally, another Iranian group in May compromised an account owned by a government employee in a swing state, the report said. It was unclear whether that cyberattack was related to election interference efforts.
Iran's United Nations mission denied it had plans to interfere or launch cyberattacks on the U.S. presidential election.
"Iran has been the victim of numerous offensive cyber operations targeting its infrastructure, public service centers, and industries. Iran's cyber capabilities are defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces. Iran has neither the intention nor plans to launch cyber attacks. The U.S. presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere," it told the Associated Press.
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Watch the Health Ranger Mike Adams' interview with Tina Peters, who is being prosecuted for defending election integrity in Colorado.
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