Foreign threats to the US election are on the rise, and officials are moving faster to expose them
Foreign threats to the upcoming U.S. election are on the rise as Nov. 5 approaches, and U.S. officials are moving more aggressively to call them out
WASHINGTON (AP) — A presidential candidate's phone is hacked. A fake video falsely shows ballots burned in Pennsylvania. National security officials warn that U.S. adversaries may incite violent protests after Election Day.
These developments — all revealed in the past week — show how Russia, China and Iran have increased the pace of efforts to meddle in American politics ahead of next month's election, just as intelligence officials and security analysts had predicted.
At the same time, officials, tech companies and private researchers have adopted a more aggressive defense by swiftly exposing foreign election threats, highlighting the lessons learned from past election cycles that revealed America's vulnerability to disinformation and cyberespionage.
Officials say the U.S. election system is so secure that no foreign nation could alter the results at a scale necessary to change the outcome. Nevertheless, authoritarian adversaries have leveraged disinformation and cyberespionage to target campaigns and voters while stoking distrust and discord.
