Senior cyber official: Disinfo campaigns a ‘significant concern’ ahead of midterms

Jen Easterly, the head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said her agency is concerned about the rise of disinformation campaigns originating from Russia, China and Iran ahead of the November midterms. 

Easterly, who spoke on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said government agencies are very worried about how those nation-state threat actors are attempting to influence the election. 

“It’s a significant concern because we think about these adversaries that are trying to sow discord, that are trying to break us apart, that are trying to undermine the integrity of our elections,” Easterly said. 

Easterly noted a recent report from cybersecurity firm Mandiant that found that a pro-Chinese disinformation group has been aggressively targeting the U.S. by attempting to discredit the U.S. political system and discourage Americans from voting in the midterms. 

The FBI has also warned that Chinese hackers are scanning the headquarters of Democratic and Republican state parties for vulnerable systems they could potentially hack ahead of the midterms.

However, the agency and the respective political parties have said that election systems have not been compromised. 

Easterly added that her agency is also facing other types of threats including cyberattacks, insider threats, physical threats and harassment against elections officials. 

“It’s a more complex environment than I think we’ve ever experienced,” Easterly said, referring to the numerous election threats her agency faces.

Easterly also said that CISA has spent the last several weeks conducting nationwide training with local officials on how to de-escalate situations, adding that “it is a really difficult physical security environment.”

In fact, 1 in 3 elections officials and poll workers have quit their positions over fears of their safety, and state officials are having a hard time hiring for such positions, said Kim Wyman, senior election security lead at CISA, in a recent interview. 

Despite the ongoing threats, Easterly said the agency has been closely working with state and local governments to protect the election and ensure that they have the tools and resources in place to “run secure and resilient elections.”

“I am very confident that we have done everything we can to make election infrastructure as secure and as resilient as possible,” she said, adding that there’s no credible or specific threats at the moment that would disrupt or compromise the election infrastructure.

Easterly also cautioned that CISA does not censor information online, but instead educates citizens on how to spot disinformation tactics and differentiate fact from fiction. 

“Securing elections is a nonpartisan activity,” Easterly said.

“We don’t work with [social media] platforms on what they do around content, that is entirely their decision,” she added.