ELECTION SECURITYForeign Actors Could Sow 'Chaos' in the 2024 Presidential Election, Cybersecurity Expert Says
In a tightly contested election, a “hack and leak” campaigns can be hugely “consequential” at the margins, says an expert.
Former President Donald Trump says that his campaign was hacked by the Iranian government — a claim that followed news on Friday that Microsoft had evidence suggesting an Iranian hacking group had breached a presidential campaign official’s account.
The breach is the result of a “spear phishing” email sent by an individual associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps back in June, according to Microsoft. It was one of four examples the tech company provided of Iranian hackers penetrating campaign and election infrastructure “in an apparent effort to stir up controversy or sway voters — especially in swing states.”
Coinciding with Trump’s announcement, Politico reported over the weekend that it had received emails from an anonymous account appearing to contain what the news outlet described as “internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official.”
The disparate threads — while appearing related — have yet to be corroborated (Microsoft didn’t identify which campaign was affected, and Politico hasn’t identified the hacker or their motive).
But the developments point to a growing threat of foreign actors seeking to interfere in the U.S. election by obtaining sensitive information that could be used to sow distrust and undermine confidence in the electoral process.
In a tightly contested election, such “hack and leak” campaigns — while not necessarily new — can be hugely “consequential” at the margins, says Ryan Ellis, an assistant professor at Northeastern University whose research focuses on communication law and policy, infrastructure politics and cybersecurity.
“We’ve invested a lot and learned a lot about election security over the last three elections, and I’m hopeful that the lessons learned and the practices we’ve developed would be put to good use,” Ellis says.
Northeastern Global News spoke to Ellis about the latest threats to election security, and what is being done to counteract them. His comments have been edited for brevity and clarity.
What do we know about the hack?
The reporting from Microsoft last week was that actors affiliated in some way with Iran successfully penetrated one of the presidential campaigns. They have not confirmed which campaign it was, but the Trump campaign has come out and said it was them, but we are still waiting for Microsoft to actually confirm that and it wasn’t just an incidental, unrelated leak.
