A new report, first reported by PBS News, warns that November's midterm elections in the United States will drive "elevated" cyber threats to political organizations, fundraising and media platforms, and that some of the groundwork for election misinformation and disinformation likely is already being laid.
Check Point, a cyber security company, found that in January of this year, approximately 1,300 newly registered domains contained the keyword "election," and approximately 2,957 contained "vote." Registering website domains does not establish malicious activity alone, the report notes, but the websites do "increase the pool of domains that may later be used for phishing, impersonation, fraudulent donation activity, or the distribution of misinformation." In an even sharper increase in website registrations, for the month between April 13 and May 14, Check Point Exposure Management found that approximately 1,140 newly registered domains contained "election," while approximately 4,010 contained "vote".
"Seeing that these websites are continuing to grow is of significant concern, on top of what's already a concerning status quo," said Kathy Boockvar of Athena Strategies, who served as secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 2019 to 2021. She said the Check Point report is "consistent with what we've heard from federal agencies and other private sector entities that are tracking threats."
