Top lawmaker warns US ‘ill-prepared’ for election interference

The United States may not be ready to deal with the disinformation and cyberattacks expected to hit the country ahead of this year’s presidential election, a senior U.S. lawmaker says.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner told a cybersecurity conference in Washington that despite efforts across U.S. government agencies to prevent election interference, gaps remain, particularly when it comes to foreign influence activities.

“I’m concerned that we are less prepared for foreign interference in the 2024 election than we were in 2020,” he told the Trellix Cybersecurity Summit.

The prevalence of artificial intelligence could also make Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election look “like child’s play,” he added.

Top U.S. law enforcement and cybersecurity officials have repeatedly expressed confidence in their ability to protect the nation’s voting infrastructure from attacks by U.S. adversaries.

“Americans can have confidence in our election system and our democracy,” FBI Director Christopher Wray, backed by leaders from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency, told lawmakers last month. .”

But officials have expressed concern about influence operations aimed at exploiting existing domestic political divisions in the United States, particularly from Russia, China and Iran.

Warner said Tuesday that he believed this was where Washington’s election defenses were most vulnerable, citing a court ruling that bars social media companies from sharing information about potential foreign influence operations with the FBI or CISA.

“This should freak us all out,” he said, adding that voter sensitivity is probably at an all-time high.

“Unfortunately, by 2024, there will be more Americans who are more likely to trust or less likely to trust our system,” Warner said.

Warner’s warning about Russian election interference echoed comments from White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

“There is good reason to be concerned. The Russian Federation and its intelligence services have a long history of being involved in presidential elections,” Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

However, the concerns have angered some lawmakers and conservative commentators who believe the White House is trying to resurrect what they call the “Russia hoax” – the Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that many Democrats say was intended to help former President Donald Trump. Trump wins.

Warner refuted this claim in an interview with reporters.

“Anyone who doesn’t believe that Russian intelligence has interfered and will continue to interfere in our elections … I want to know where they start to get their information,” he said in response to a question from VOA.

In a declassified intelligence report on the U.S. 2022 election released late last year, the National Intelligence Council assessed with a high degree of confidence that Russia, along with China and Iran, conducted operations aimed at influencing the outcome of the election.

“The Russian government and its proxies are seeking to discredit Democrats and undermine confidence in the elections ahead of the midterm elections, most likely undermining U.S. support for Ukraine,” the report said.

The statement added that China was targeting “a handful of midterm elections involving members of both parties in the United States.”

Russia and China have both previously denied accusations of conducting influence operations targeting the U.S. election.