The US midterm elections take place on Tuesday, and alongside the campaigns a quieter battle is under way in cyberspace. On October 16 the FBI and CISA, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, issued a joint warning to election officials and campaigns about attackers trying to steal passwords and plant malware.
Phishing, not hacking machines
According to the warning, attackers' main tools are phishing emails and text messages. Election officials and campaigns are prized targets because they have access to voter rolls, elected officials and sensitive information. Experts interviewed by Northeastern University see a relatively low risk of hacking the voting machines themselves, partly thanks to paper ballots that allow recounts.
The real worry: CISA
What worries experts more is the state of CISA itself. According to ProPublica, more than a thousand of the agency's staff left or were laid off, and local election officials say they have been left on their own. According to CNN, election officials are preparing both for foreign threats and for uncertainty in Washington. The Department of Homeland Security says CISA is fully prepared. The leak of details of more than 40,000 department employees, including CISA staff, revealed this week does not help the sense of security.
Why it matters in Israel
Israel itself has just come out of an election, and the threats are similar: phishing against activists and officials, influence attempts on social media and data leaks. The lesson from the US is that protecting elections is not just technology but also information sharing between national agencies and local authorities, and that cuts to the defending agency are felt precisely at moments like these.
