China, Russia and Iran capable of disrupting 2024 elections, intel assessment warns
The intelligence community says that China, Russia and Iran are capable of and willing to launch cyberattacks seeking to disrupt the U.S. presidential election in November, according to an assessment released Monday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The annual threat assessment which collates findings from U.S. spy agencies released at the cusp of a high profile Senate hearing examining worldwide threats to U.S. national security, which included vast analysis of cyber and technology threats.
Misinformation and disinformation operations that seek to sway public opinion of electoral and other political processes “are increasingly deployed cheaply by an array of adversarial actors,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, in opening remarks. China may attempt to influence election outcomes in November “because of its desire to sideline critical of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions,” the assessment says. That may include Chinese state-run TikTok accounts, which had targeted candidates in the 2022 midterms, it notes.
