But despite the concerns, there are still questions about what kind of impact Chinese, Russian and Iranian influence operations will have on American voters when they cast their ballots.
Top U.S. law enforcement officials, military and intelligence officials are expressing confidence in their ability to safeguard the security of the upcoming presidential election, despite growing evidence that some countries remain willing to intervene. polls.
Officials have been preparing for election attacks for nearly four years, since the US intelligence community concluded that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election. But now, with less than 50 days to go, voters addressing polling stations on November 3, they say there are no signs that Russia or anyone else is trying to attack critical electoral systems.
“We have not seen cyber attacks this year to date on voter registers or any system involved in primary voting,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday in a virtual meeting hosted by the Cyber Security Agency and the Agency. of Infrastructure Security (CISA).
And despite describing the FBI’s efforts to protect critical U.S. systems as an “endless battle,” Mr. Wray said it appears the precautionary measures put in place since the 2016 election are paying off.
“As far as we know, no foreign government has attempted to interfere in the vote count in the United States,” he said.
Speaking at a special virtual conference on Wednesday, the US Cyber Command commander also tried to reassure voters ahead of Election Day.
“I am very confident that we will have tremendous, continued success, based on the joint work of all (government) agencies and our partners,” said General Paul Nakasone, who is also director of the National Security Agency. .
These assessments are in line with other assessments made by senior US officials in recent weeks regarding the threat to the presidential election – that although US opponents such as China, Russia and Iran are seeking to interfere in the election, they efforts have not yet penetrated the systems on which the country will rely to conduct voting.
“These will be the safest elections in modern history,” said Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs last week, echoing a phrase he has used many times since July.
As part of efforts to secure the election, the U.S. government has worked with U.S. states to increase the number of sensors monitoring for malicious cyber activity. More than 90% of the country’s constituencies now have systems in place to ensure there is a paper record of every vote cast, just in case something goes wrong.
Senior officials have also downplayed concerns raised by President Donald Trump that increasing access to postal voting due to the coronavirus pandemic could lead to “the most MANIPULATED elections in our country’s history.”
“We have no information or intelligence that any risky state actor is engaging in any activity to damage any part of the postal ballot or ballot,” a senior US intelligence official said last month. past, while informing journalists on condition of anonymity.
However, while US officials are confident in the enhanced US voting infrastructure, they remain concerned about how opponents intend to change the election outcome with influential campaigns and propaganda.
On Wednesday, General Nakasone described impact operations as a threat that is likely to worsen as technology continues to advance.
“Impact operations, in general, for us will be one of the things we will deal with not just every two or four years,” he said. “I think we will see it in our diplomatic processes. We will see him in the war. “We will see it planting civil distrust in different countries.”
There are signs that China, Russia and Iran are stepping up their efforts.
Last week, Microsoft announced that it had uncovered evidence that hackers linked to the three suspected countries were actively targeting President Trump’s re-election campaign, as well as the campaign of his main challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden.
“Foreign groups have stepped up their efforts to target the 2020 election as planned and in line with what the US government and others have reported,” wrote Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate security vice president, on his blog last week. of customers.
“Most of these attacks were detected and stopped by security devices embedded in our products,” he added.
Last month, William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, warned that China, Russia and Iran were seeking to “undermine the confidence of the American people in our democratic process.”
In that rare public warning, Mr Evanina said Russia appeared to be aiming to undermine Mr Biden’s campaign, with some Kremlin-linked actors “seeking to strengthen President Trump’s candidacy on social media and on Russian television”.
Mr Evanina said both China and Iran seemed to favor Mr Biden’s candidacy.
But despite the concerns, there are still questions about what kind of impact Chinese, Russian and Iranian influence operations will have on American voters when they cast their ballots.
“Even if you can prove the origin of an operation, even if you can really gather data on the extent of the operation, it is very difficult to calculate what the impact is,” said Daniel Kimmage, deputy chief coordinator of the department’s Global Engagement Center. American State. “I think it remains one of the tremendous challenges in this area.”