| | | | |  | | By John Sakellariadis | Presented by ManTech | With help from Eric Geller and Maggie Miller
| | | — While a major attack against the midterms remains unlikely, digital malefactors have a range of options for trying to undermine the vote. MC breaks down the cyber threats that could throw sand in the gears of Election Day. HAPPY MONDAY, and welcome to Morning Cybersecurity! The last thing we need before the midterms? Proof that you can cheat and get away with it. With that, congratulations to the 2022 Houston Astros! Your MC writer (Yankees fan) and his very unbiased editor (Phillies fan) wish you the worst of luck next year. Got your tips, feedback or other commentary? Send them to me at jsakellariadis@politico.com . You can also follow @POLITICOPro and @MorningCybersec on Twitter. Full team contact info is below.
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| | | Former CISA Director Chris Krebs speaks at a Washington Post Live virtual discussion on election security. 1 p.m.
| | | PANOPLY OF POTENTIAL PROBLEMS — From hacking voter registration databases to hijacking candidates' Twitter accounts to spreading election lies, malicious actors have no shortage of ways to meddle with the midterms, as federal, state and local officials have warned over the last month. But what, if anything, is most likely to go wrong, and how big of a deal would it be? In a story published this morning , Eric explores six potential election security threats that loom on the horizon. Hackers could cripple election offices' websites, or they could use stolen data to harass voters like Iran did in 2020 . There's even a chance that they could burrow their way into some of the wireless modems used to transmit unofficial results, a threat that Eric recently highlighted . CISA doesn't believe any major cyberattack is imminent. "We're not tracking any specific and credible threat to election infrastructure," Geoff Hale, the agency's lead for election security and resilience, told Eric late last week. But things could still go awry. Here are the biggest, most realistic issues for which MC readers should be on alert: — Error 404, website not found: One of the easiest ways to digitally mess with the election would be to launch a distributed denial-of-service attack against a secretary of state or county election office's website, taking it down with a barrage of traffic. DDoS attacks are easy to perform, and properly timed, they could cause some localized panic on Election Day. It's important to note, however, that such temporary website outages don't suggest more serious underlying vulnerabilities affecting voter data or vote tallies. — Sweet little lies: The most cost-effective way to sabotage the midterms would be to orchestrate campaigns of falsehoods that play into existing right-wing conspiracy theories about voter fraud, rigged voting machines and corrupt ballot-counting. Disinformation is the digital threat that most worries federal officials and their state and local partners, in part because it doesn't require exploiting any technological flaws. China has attempted scattershot influence operations over the past few months, according to cyber threat intelligence firms , but there's always the chance that Election Day will bring something more focused and effective. — Twitter chaos: With new Twitter owner Elon Musk having fired hundreds of employees , including staffers working on content moderation , it's anyone's guess how well the social network's remaining team will manage to combat potential account takeovers and misinformation campaigns. A July 2020 incident proved how much rests on the integrity of high-profile accounts; the last thing this election needs is a rash of hijacked verified accounts misleading people about what's happening across the country in the final hours of voting. Some criminals have already turned Musk's vow to charge for verified badges into a phishing lure , illustrating how hackers might seize on promises of a consequential policy change to trick politicians or other influential figures into turning over their passwords.
| | | | NEW AND IMPROVED POLITICO APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. With a fresh look and improved features, the sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don't miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. Already a POLITICO app user? Upgrade today! DOWNLOAD FOR iOS – DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID . | | | | | | | | PLANTING THE SEED — Online trolls are already trying to undermine confidence in the integrity of the voting machines that will be used in Tuesday's midterms, a report out this morning from cybersecurity firm Recorded Future warns. Across mainstream and alternative social media platforms, researchers with Recorded Future's Inskit Group found "substantial evidence" of allegations that voting equipment will be used to "rig" the outcome of the vote. The disinformation campaigns, whose origins are unknown, target three of the major election machine manufacturers in the country: Dominion Voting Systems, Election Systems & Software and Smartmatic. — Mostly homegrown: The researchers warned that while most of the disinformation concerning voting equipment companies would originate from domestic sources, some foreign state-owned media is likely to amplify claims challenging the validity of the midterms. — The headache continues: Both Dominion and Smartmatic have filed defamation lawsuits against former President Donald Trump, his allies and media outlets for claiming the companies' machines were used to change the results of the 2020 presidential election. Recorded Future researchers noted in their report that "prominent political figures will almost certainly give voice to false information" around the security of voting machines in counties where the election results do not go their way, and that the online activity is likely to continue well after Election Day. — Stay vigilant: Election officials in the most hotly contested states — Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada — should prepare for "hyper-scrutiny" of their work, while it is "paramount" that equipment manufacturers acknowledge and explain any legitimate errors that arise, counsel the researchers.
| | | | A message from ManTech:   | | | | | | SAME OLD TUNE — A pair of House Republicans is criticizing the White House — again — for slow rolling the development of an economy-wide cyber doomsday plan that is due at year's end. Though the White House has two more months to deliver a roadmap for how the U.S. would scramble economic resources in response to a debilitating cyberattack or manmade disaster, it is poised to fall short in producing the continuity of the economy, or COTE, plan, assert Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) in a letter published Friday and sent earlier last week. By waiting more than 15 months to task CISA to begin work on the plan, the administration "ultimately set them up to fail," allege the two lawmakers, who want the White House to brief them with a status update on the COTE. Feet to the fire — Since the COTE became law through the 2021 defense authorizations bill, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed frustration with the White House's lack of progress on the effort. In separate letters in December 2021, Gallagher and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), and Garbarino urged the Biden administration to get working on the COTE. At a Foundation for the Defense of Democracies event this September, Gallagher again cited the implementation of the plan as a priority of his office. Two birds, one stone? — Originally introduced as part of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission — of which King and Gallagher serve as commissioners — the idea for a cyber doomsday plan could have spillover benefits for other federal cyber priorities. The law requires the president to identify entities whose destruction would have a debilitating effect on the economy, game-plan the distribution of critical goods and services and determine how to mitigate potential supply chain bottlenecks, among other tasks. Each of those efforts could inform future Congressional and the Executive branch initiatives to shore up the defenses of the country's most critical of critical infrastructure.
| | | GOOD AND BAD NEWS — Ransomware attacks are on the rise in Latin America, even as they decline in North America and Europe, finds a new report from Microsoft . According to Tom Burt, corporate vice president of customer security and trust at Microsoft, the rise in attacks against Latin American organizations stems from two factors: hackers getting smarter about how much companies will pay to get their data back and the growth of ransomware-as-a-service, in which extortion groups rent their software to independent hackers. The report also found that Russia and Iran are increasingly turning to ransomware attacks to target and disrupt critical infrastructure, as my colleague Maggie reported Friday. — Global action: The report comes just days after the White House hosted the second annual gathering of the Counter Ransomware Initiative, a 37-member global initiative aimed at tackling the growth in ransomware attacks. More than a dozen private sector groups were involved in the summit, including Microsoft, and Burt stressed that the company plans to continue its efforts to disrupt infrastructure used by cyber criminals. "You'll see us continuing to invest in how we can disrupt criminal botnets and try to prioritize those that have the most impact, and that certainly includes botnets that are involved in the distribution of ransomware," Burt said.
| | | GREEN HAT HACKERS — The militant Palestinian group Hamas is developing into a capable offensive cyber actor that deserves more attention from Western authorities, argues a new report out today from the Atlantic Council. Though the U.S. tends to focus on cyber threats from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, or on terrorist cyber threats against critical infrastructure, non-state actors like Hamas have grown adept at employing a mix of espionage and information operations to reinforce their domestic and external political objectives, argues the report's author, Simon Handler. Handler warns Hamas could pose a greater cyber threat over time, and he calls on U.S. authorities to consider new countermeasures for non-state cyber actors, such as how to limit technology and capability sharing via third parties.
| | | If Twitter users keep migrating in droves to Mastodon, we may have to rename this section. Things could get interesting .
|  Twitter | | | | Samuel Anderson is now chief information security officer for the Washington secretary of state. He most recently was an IT security specialist for the Washington state auditor's office.
| | | | DON'T MISS POLITICO'S 2nd ANNUAL DEFENSE SUMMIT ON 11/16: The United States is facing a defining moment in the future of its defense, national security and democratic ideals. The current conflicts and developments around the world are pushing Washington to reshape its defense strategy and how it cooperates with allies. Join POLITICO for our second annual defense summit, "At a Crossroads: America's Defense Strategy" on November 16 in person at the Schuyler DC or join online to hear keynote interviews and panels discussing the road ahead for America's national security. REGISTER HERE . | | | | | | | | — The National Guard is standing up cyber personnel in more than a dozen states to support election security this week. (POLITICO) — Despite the risks, one millionaire is pushing for the vote to go online. (The Intercept) — Microsoft accuses China of abusing its vulnerability disclosure requirements. (The Record) — U.S. pilot arrested in Australia shared address with indicted Chinese hacker. (Reuters)
| | | — How Qatar hacked the World Cup . (Bureau of Investigative Journalism) Chat soon. Stay in touch with the whole team: Eric Geller ( egeller@politico.com ); Maggie Miller ( mmiller@politico.com ); John Sakellariadis ( jsakellariadis@politico.com ); and Heidi Vogt ( hvogt@politico.com ). ~~~~~~
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