Election cyberattacks: separating fact from fiction will be harder than ever during 2024’s elections

With a general election only weeks away in the UK, an imminent US Presidential election and important elections taking place worldwide throughout 2024, cybersecurity has never before played such an important role in politics. And it’s never been more difficult to fight the election cyberattacks.

The Joint Committee on National Security Strategy (JCNSS) in the UK has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with a warning about foreign interference, while the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has introduced a new ‘Personal Internet Protection’ service as part of a package designed to support individuals and organisations that play an important role in our democracy.

“The NCSC has ramped up our support for people at higher risk of being targeted online to ensure they can better protect their accounts and devices from attacks,” said Jonathon Ellison, NCSC Director for National Resilience and Future Technology.

“In this significant year of elections around the world, I urge individuals eligible for our services to sign up and to follow our guidance now to bolster their defences.”

The JCNSS letter warned Sunak that hostile actors may seek to:

• undermine trust in electoral processes through cyberattacks targeted at our institutions, including ransomware attacks
• target high-profile individuals such as political candidates to retrieve sensitive information for exploitation through coercion or publication
• spread disinformation online about public figures – including through the use of generative Al to create fake videos and audio – to fuel conspiracy theories

Related: Fighting fake news: we need to build the tools to manage a world where AI has destroyed the truth

Deepfakes and election cyberattacks

While cyberattacks targeting elections aren’t new, recent technologies are adding fuel to the disinformation fire. Deepfakes have been used in recent months to impersonate both Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer, for example.

Tim Callan, Chief Experience Officer at Sectigo, warns this could turn into an unprecedented deluge of deepfake content explicitly designed to mislead voters.

“It’s alarming to see the rise of deepfake technology now being used to mimic news anchors to spread misinformation,” Callan said. “People don’t realise how far AI-deep fake technology has come and how democratised the technology is.”

Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor, ESET, advises that while recent advancements in AI-powered tools have led to a resurgence in the use of deepfakes, “there can often be a noticeable factor such as a strange head movement, a flicker of light or blurred parts of the face that gives the gameaway.”

However, Moore warns that “as this technology advances, distinguishing between them has become increasingly more challenging especially in the midst of an election or when there is a more powerful narrative or agenda to prove”.

International elections

It’s not just the UK that will be impacted by such digital disinformation tactics.

Dr Tony Roberts, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, said: “There are 17 elections due to take place in Africa this year, and the fear is that digital disinformation will distort every one of them.

“For elections to be free and fair, voters need to be able to access information that they can trust, but in the wild west of social media platforms, citizens can no longer always believe what they see.”

When it comes to the US election, a Department of Homeland Security bulletin obtained by CNN warns that AI will give both “foreign operatives and domestic extremists enhanced opportunities for interference”.

Fortunately, Vonny Gamot, Head of EMEA at McAfee, has some tips to help identify the fiction from the facts:

• Verify sources before sharing information
• Be cautious of distorted images
• Listen for robotic voices, awkward pauses and unnatural emphasis

But as we know, while the first piece of advice will hold true forever, the other two may rapidly become less relevant as the technology continues to improve.