Campaigns and political parties are in the crosshairs of election meddlers

A Mandiant and Google Cloud report finds election-focused threat actors are pivoting from directly targeting election infrastructure to attacking campaigns, parties, media, and social platforms, with the most likely 2024 vectors being unauthorized access/theft, hack-and-leak operations, and DDoS; cyber-enabled vote tampering remains unlikely but high impact. Russia is assessed as the most significant threat to U.S., U.K., and European elections, while China, Iran, and North Korea are more focused on espionage and influence; improved defenses and faster exposure reduce the reach of influence operations, yet campaign cybersecurity remains under-resourced and vulnerable.