Cyber threat actors use a variety of techniques to target election and campaign officials


The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are providing this Public Service Announcement (PSA) to raise awareness of the cyber threats facing election and campaign officials during the upcoming 2026 U.S. midterm elections. Additionally, this announcement provides the public with information on techniques, including phishing1 and smishing2, that malicious cyber actors have used during past election cycles.

Malicious cyber actors may attempt to disrupt the 2026 U.S. midterm elections using phishing and smishing techniques to steal user data, including login credentials and sensitive information. Election officials, candidates, and their political organizations are attractive targets to malicious cyber criminals due to their access to voter registration data, current government officials, or sensitive campaign information.

Read more…
Source: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Cyber Division


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • Silver Sparrow Malware Found Nesting on 30K Macs

    February 19, 2021

    Hard on the heels of a macOS adware being recompiled to target Apple’s new in-house processor, researchers have discovered a brand-new family of malware targeting the platform. Curiously, in the samples seen so far by analysts at Red Canary, the malware (dubbed Silver Sparrow) has been executing on victim machines with the final payload yet to ...

  • U.S. Accuses North Korean Hackers of Stealing Millions

    February 17, 2021

    The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted three North Korean computer programmers for their alleged participation in widespread, destructive cyberattacks as part of the advanced persistent threat (APT) known as Lazarus Group. The indictment broadens the scope of crimes that the DoJ has linked to Lazarus Group (and by extension, to North Korea). The feds also ...

  • British cyber gang ‘stole large amounts from US sports and music stars after accessing their phones’

    February 10, 2021

    Eight Britons have been arrested for hacking into the phones of US celebrities to steal money and personal information – even posing as them online. Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said sports stars, musicians and their families had been targeted by the scam in which criminals gain access to their victim’s phones or accounts. This allowed them ...

  • Florida: Hacker Changed Chemical Levels at Oldsmar’s Water Treatment Plant

    February 8, 2021

    Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a news conference Monday there were two intrusions, hours apart. The first one happened at 8 a.m., when a plant operator noticed someone remotely accessing the system he was monitoring, which controls chemicals and other plant operations. But he didn’t think much of it, according to the sheriff, because ...

  • US federal payroll agency hacked using SolarWinds software flaw

    February 2, 2021

    The FBI has discovered that the National Finance Center (NFC), a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) federal payroll agency, was compromised by exploiting a SolarWinds Orion software flaw, according to a Reuters report. NFC provides human resources and payroll services to roughly 170 federal agencies and over 650,000 federal employees since 1973. The software vulnerability used to ...

  • Minnesota: Netgain ransomware incident impacts local governments

    February 2, 2021

    The ransomware incident that Netgain, a provider of managed IT services, had late last year rippled onto its customers. Now, Ramsey County, Minnesota, is informing clients of the Family Health Division program that the hackers may have accessed personal data. The government of Ramsey County learned about the potential breach on December 2, 2020, when Netagin ...