US intelligence warns foreign influence narratives will focus on swing states

With just hours left for the presidential election in the United States (US), intelligence agencies warned that foreign influence narratives would focus on swing states. 

This warning was issued in a joint statement published on Monday (Nov 4) by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). 

As per the joint statement, the Intelligence Community (IC) had been observing foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of US elections and stoke divisions among Americans.

The IC said that it expected these activities to intensify through Election Day on November 5 and in the coming weeks, “and that foreign influence narratives will focus on swing states.”

Monday’s joint statement said that Russia was the most active threat.

“Influence actors linked to Russia, in particular, are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instil fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences, judging from information available to the IC,” the statement said.

The statement pointed out that Iran too remained a significant foreign influence threat to the presidential election. 

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“As noted in a prior update, we have assessed that Iran has conducted malicious cyber activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign. Iranian influence actors may also seek to create fake media content intended to suppress voting or stoke violence, as they have done in past election cycles,” the statement added.

The CISA recommended voters to seek out information from trusted and official sources, in particular, state and local election officials. 

The IC encouraged campaigns and election infrastructure stakeholders to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to their local Election Crime Coordinators.