Securing Elections in the Face of AI and Cyber Threats

Creating confusion can undermine confidence in elections without changing a single vote. Attackers may not need to alter election outcomes to sow distrust. For instance, in 2024, Iranian cyber actors stole private campaign materials to influence the election. U.S. intelligence agencies attributed a fake video of ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania to Russian actors. These actions aimed to exploit divisions and corrode trust in electoral systems.

Artificial intelligence (AI) complicates this challenge further. AI can facilitate deception by making it cheaper, faster, and more personalized. Moreover, AI enables dishonest actors to dismiss genuine evidence as fabricated. Social engineering exploits human perceptions, trust, and triggers for action, particularly during an emotional election period filled with prominent figures and significant information.

Consider examples like receiving a call that sounds like a candidate urgently seeking donations, a text claiming your polling location changed, or a video appearing to show an election official admitting misconduct. Each scenario exploits familiar figures or institutions. AI allows attackers to create convincing variations on a large scale.

Campaign staff could also be targeted. For example, an attacker mimicking a colleague’s voice might request an authentication code. A single successful deception can result in the exposure, editing, and misuse of private communications. Attacks might start with a social media post, move to a fake website, and culminate in a text message. Repeated exposure to a claim doesn’t verify its authenticity.

The deeper issue arises when awareness of deception morphs into widespread disbelief. Legal scholars Bobby Chesney and Danielle Citron call this the “liar’s dividend.” As awareness of deepfakes grows, dishonest actors have more legitimate-sounding excuses to disregard authentic recordings, trustworthy reporting, or concrete evidence, claiming it is AI-generated or altered.

The challenge for voters is learning to scrutinize suspicious content without assuming everything is fake. They must adopt habits that make it harder to manipulate them:

• Pause before acting on messages: Urgency, outrage, and fear require extra caution. Verify requests through a separate channel before donating, sharing, or changing voting plans.
• Seek independent confirmation: Multiple accounts sharing the same clip might rely on an unreliable source. Look for credible reporting that establishes the source of information.
• Verify through official channels: Confirm registration, polling sites, and deadlines with state or local election offices. For campaign communications, visit the campaign’s official website instead of following unsolicited links.
• Be comfortable with uncertainty: Feel free to say, “I don’t know yet.” Wait for evidence without jumping to conclusions, even if a claim aligns with personal beliefs.

Responsibility also lies beyond voters. Campaigns should secure their accounts, ensure original communication availability, and respond quickly to impersonation. Platforms need effective reporting and escalation procedures to counter deceptive election content. Organizations like Defending Digital Campaigns provide cybersecurity support to eligible campaigns.

AI can aid in defense efforts. The same technology that enhances attacker capabilities can help defenders identify malicious activity, trace coordinated efforts across channels, and disrupt campaigns before widespread exposure.

Technology alone cannot resolve the trust issue. With synthetic content production becoming easier, authenticating information must be simplified. This involves providing voters with reliable sources to confirm campaign and election official statements and responding swiftly to impersonations.

The risk isn’t just that AI will deceive people into believing falsehoods. The greater danger is the erosion of trust, leading to skepticism about everything. Election security must address both threats to ensure voters’ ability to discern what is real alongside protecting the systems that count votes.

Author: Bobby Ford, Chief Strategy Officer at Doppel

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