Threat to US elections not limited to Russia in 2020

Russia interfered in 2016 election and may try to sway next year’s vote as well. But it’s t only nation with an eye on U.S. politics. US officials sounding alarm about foreign efforts to disrupt 2020 election include multiple countries in that warning. Concerns abound t only about possible hacking of campaigns but also about spre of disinformation on social media and potential efforts to breach voting databases and even alter votes.

anxiety goes beyond possibility that U.S. versaries could directly affect election results: mere hint of foreign meddling could undermine public confidence in vote tallies — a worrisome possibility in a tight election.

“Unfortunately, it’s t just Russia anymore. In particular, China, Iran, a couple of ors, studied what Russians did in 2016,” said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

US intelligence ncies reported Russian, Chinese and Iranian influence operations targeting last year’s midterms, and a senior FBI official recently singled out Beijing as a particular source of concern. Meanwhile, Microsoft recently reported that Iranian hackers h targeted an unidentified presidential campaign along with government officials, journalists, and prominent expatriate Iranians.

RE| Donald Trump calls Osama bin Len, Hamza "tall, very handsome"

Any foreign effort to interfere in 2020 election won’t necessarily mirror Russia’s attack in 2016 when Kremlin-linked military intelligence officers hacked Democratic emails and shared m with WikiLeaks to try to help Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. More likely are social media campaigns, like Russian-based one that shaped public opinion in 2016 election and divided Americans on hot-button topics like race and religion. Facebook anunced recently that it has removed four networks of fake, state-backed misinformation-spreing accounts based in Russia and Iran. company said networks sought to disrupt elections in U.S., rth Africa, and Latin America.

A Senate Intelligence Committee report described Russia’s social media activities as a “vastly more complex and strategic assault on United States than was initially understood.” A recent memo prepared by FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned that Russia may use social media to exacerbate divisions within political parties during primaries or hack election websites to spre misinformation on voting processes.

Concerns about foreign influence coincide with stepped-up enforcement of a law requiring registration with Justice Department of lobbyists, media organizations and or entities that do bidding of a foreign government.

RE| Army officer says he raised concerns about Trump and Ukraine

Special counsel Robert Mueller exposed through his investigation unregistered, covert Russian campaign to spre disinformation on social media. Justice Department is concerned about China undertaking similar activities. Twitter said it has suspended more than 200,000 accounts that it believes were part of a Chinese government influence campaign targeting protest movement in Hong Kong. department last year also required China’s state-owned television network, CGTN, to register.

“Make mistake, China is aggressively pursuing foreign influence operations,” Nikki Floris, an FBI deputy assistant director, said at a recent congressional hearing. “So as we roll into 2020, though Russia was certainly a threat in 2016 (and) 2018, and will continue to be so in 2020, we are also aggressively looking at China as well.”

U.S. officials said foreign influence campaigns didn’t change midterm vote totals, but re’s question that concern remains for 2020. Besides hacking and subsequent release of stolen emails, Russian nts in 2016 searched for vulnerabilities within election systems in all 50 states and breached election systems of two Florida counties but don’t appear to have done any dam.

US versaries might have a stake in 2020 vote. Trump, for instance, speaks well of rth Korean leer Kim Jong-Un while deepening tensions with Iran by withdrawing U.S. from a nuclear deal. He has also engd China in a tre war. But some experts are skeptical that those countries will use hacking to try to boost a particular candidate — or to influence election at all. Much of ir hacking has been tied to more narrow national interests.

RE| Once a budget line, Ukraine aid w roils Trump’s presidency

China, for instance, has so far used its cyber capabilities for purposes of espion and intellectual property ft and to furr its goal of challenging U.S. role as a global ecomic superpower. Justice Department in 2014 charged five Chinese military hackers with siphoning secrets from major American corporations.

Iranian hackers have attacked dozens of banks and a small dam outside New York City and, more recently, sought to pilfer sensitive information from hundreds of universities, private companies, and American government ncies. rth Korea tends to focus its efforts on defectors, acemics and ors with a hostile relationship to country, said Jung Pak, a Brookings Institution expert. It hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment and released private emails of its executives in apparent retaliation for a Hollywood comedy that mocked Kim.

“We haven’t really seen politically motivated attacks where y try to sway elections,” said Matt Ha, a research associate at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Right w, ir main objective is summits, diplomacy, to try to gain as much as y can — gaining a lot for giving up thing.”

RE| US President Trump to celebrate Diwali in White House on Thursday

Even as or countries have bolstered ir own capabilities, Russia’s own deceslong interest in American politics makes it most challenging and realistic versary, said Lewis, of CSIS.

“y’re politically astute in a way that or country can match, and that makes m most formidable opponent,” Lewis said. “y just kw us really well.”