Hostile cyber activity in the political arena will remain one of the largest threats to the United State’s 2020 elections as they approach this coming fall. As the international political climate becomes increasingly tense and divisive, the concern of foreign interference in elections has been prevalent. As foreign interference takes different forms such as fake news and social media bots, the threat of political spear phishing is also a major US security concern.
Email is often used for cyber-attacks and can be exploited in a wide variety of attack types, ranging from direct attacks on political candidates to attacks on potential donors and voters. A direct attack similar to the 2016 email hack is the most overtly damaging outcome of malicious foreign cyber activity. However, security experts express concern that as tensions between the US and other countries escalate, so does the threat of interference in the 2020 elections.
Read More: Why the 2020 US presidential election is still vulnerable to foreign interference
