Americas, Content

Russia, Iran Email Campaigns Target U.S. Presidential Election

Russia and Iran have both tried to interfere with the 2020 presidential election, U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe warned on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Key takeaways from the report include:

  • Foreign actors are seeking to undermine Americans’ confidence in the integrity of the vote and spread misinformation in an attempt to sway its outcome.
  • Both Iran and Russia have obtained U.S. voter registration information. Most of the information was publicly available.
  • Iran has used the information to send spoofed emails that are "designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump.”
  • U.S. authorities have evidence that Russia and Iran had tried to hack into voter roll data in unidentified states, perhaps in an attempt to avoid paying fees for the data.
  • Iran denied the allegations. A statement from Russia was not mentioned in the report.

    • The FBI says U.S. infrastructure remains resilient against foreign cyberattacks that target the election, according to Bloomberg Radio.

    U.S. Election Cyberattacks: Zix and Microsoft Warnings

    Meanwhile, cybersecurity software provider Zix recently warned that hackers are using SendGrid servers and associated links to launch phishing attacks disguised as U.S. election information. Also, Microsoft and several partners have been dismantling Trickbot -- a bot network allegedly built by Russia to target the U.S. election.

    In September, house legislators approved by unanimous vote the Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act, which will make hacking into voting systems a federal crime.

    Joe Panettieri

    Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.

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