External threats to US elections are growing, and officials are scrambling to quickly expose them

WASHINGTON (AP) — A presidential candidate the phone is broken. Fake the video falsely shows burned ballots in Pennsylvania. National security officials warn that adversaries of the United States could incite violent protests after Election Day.

These developments — all revealed last week — shows how Russia, China and Iran have stepped up efforts to interfere in American politics ahead of next month’s election, as have intelligence officials and security analysts predicted.

At the same time, officials technology companies and private investigators deployed more aggressive defenses, quickly exposing foreign threats to elections, highlighting lessons learned from past election cycles that have shown America’s vulnerability to disinformation and cyber espionage.

Officials say the US election system is that safe that no foreign power can alter the results to the extent necessary to alter the outcome. Still, authoritarian opponents have used disinformation and cyber-espionage to target campaigns and voters, stoking mistrust and animosity.

Here’s what you need to know as the presidential election approaches:

Russia is the main threat

Russia is the most active and sophisticated nation working to manipulate US elections fake sitesstate-controlled mass media and involuntary Americans spread misleading and polarizing content aimed at undermining confidence in the elections.

The disinformation apparatus of the Kremlin grabs onto such controversial issues as immigrationcrime, economy or liquidation of the consequences of a natural disaster. The goal is to weaken the U.S., weaken support for Ukraine as it fights Russian invaders, and reduce America’s ability to counter Russia’s growing ties to China, North Korea and Iranofficials said.

This was established by representatives of intelligence and private security analysts Russia supports former President Donald Trumpand uses disinformation — sometimes generated by artificial intelligence — to discredit his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly offered to cut funds to Ukraine criticized the NATO military alliance.

In one particularly brazen campaign, Russia produced a video in which Harris was falsely accused of paralyzing a woman in a car accident years ago. Another video is made bogus accusations against Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz.

On Friday, the FBI confirmed Moscow’s role in the creation the third video allegedly shows the destruction of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania. Local election officials quickly debunked the video as false.

Russia has it too tried to pay American influencers who spread the Kremlin’s favorite narratives. Last month, US authorities charged two employees of the Russian state mass media direct $10 million to a Tennessee company to create pro-Russian content. The company then paid several popular right-wing influencers who said they did did not suspect that their work was supported by Russia.

Moscow campaign will not end on election day. Instead, intelligence officials and private security analysts predict that Russia will use claims of election tampering to argue that the results cannot be trusted. AND a recently declassified intelligence memo said Russia may also encourage violent protests after the election.

“Putin’s goal is to foment chaos, division and polarization in our society,” said Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia who now teaches at Stanford University.

Russia has rejected claims that it is seeking to influence the US election. A message left to the Russian Embassy in Washington was not immediately returned Saturday.

Iranian hacking and information leakage operations

Iran was a particularly brazen player foreign intervention this year.

It employees of the Trump campaign are accused of hacking and offering stolen messages to media organizations and Democrats in the hope that damaging stories would emerge that could hurt the Republican’s prospects. Emails are dirty were sent to people associated with President Joe Biden’s campaign, but there was no indication that anyone had responded, officials said.

Department of Justice last month accused three Iranian hackers who remain at large, accusing them of a years-long operation aimed at a huge number of victims.

U.S. officials have described the hacking attack as part of a broader effort to interfere in an election that Iran considers particularly important. According to them, Iran has made it clear that it opposes the Trump campaign. His administration terminated the nuclear agreement with Iranrestored the sanctions and ordered the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimaniprompting Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

In addition to cyber operations, U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed concern that Iran could carry out violence on U.S. soil against Trump or other members of his administration. In 2022, officials indicted Iran plot foiled kill Trump’s national security adviserJohn Bolton, and charged this year a Pakistani with ties to Iran in a plot to carry out political assassinations in the US, including potentially Trump.

Leaders in Tehran may also try to encourage violent protests after the election, according to a declassified intelligence memo. Authorities say Iran is also in hiding financed and supported protests in the USA because of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Iranian authorities reject accusations that the country seeks to influence the election. This week, Iran’s UN mission released a statement saying that “Iran has neither the motive nor the intention to interfere in the US election.”

Neutral China?

US intelligence officials believe that China is taking a more neutral position it is in the elections focused on the debt racetargeting candidates from both parties based on their positions on key issues for Beijing, including support for Taiwan.

But the Chinese government has been waging a sophisticated hacking operation for years targeting every aspect of Western life and industry that goes far beyond influencing elections.

“From the city council to the president, they want access,” said Adam Darrah, a former CIA political analyst who is now vice president of intelligence at ZeroFox, a cybersecurity firm that tracks foreign online threats.

on friday there was news that Chinese hackers as part of a much broader spying effort, cellphones used by Trump, his running mate J.D. Vance and people associated with the Harris campaign were targeted. It was not immediately clear what, if any, data was accessed.

A representative of the Chinese embassy in Washington said they were not familiar with the details and could not comment, but said China regularly falls victim to cyber attacks and opposes the activity.

Are these tactics new?

Unlikely. Foreign adversaries, including those now accused of meddling, have tried to interfere in the past few election cycles — with varying degrees of success.

But the U.S. government, which has been accused of relying on information about the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 election, has worked this year to aggressively appeal to outside threats to reduce their influence and reassure Americans that the election is safe.

In 2016, Russian military intelligence officers hacked email accounts campaign chair of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party and released tens of thousands of messages in an effort to promote Trump’s successful presidential campaign.

Russia also participated this year a massive but covert social media trolling campaign designed to sow discord on pressing social issues, create division in the American electoral process, and harm Clinton’s presidential bid.

The antics continued during the 2020 election cycle, when a Ukrainian lawmaker described by U.S. officials at the time as as an “active Russian agent ” released audio recordings of Democrat Joe Biden, who was running for president at the time.

the same year, Iranian hackers were blamed for the emails allegedly came from the far-right group The Proud Boys, which officials said was aimed at damaging Trump’s candidacy.