Critical Infrastructure Security, Threat Intelligence

Feds: US election security not to be impacted by expected DDoS attacks

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Closeup of an American "I voted" sticker placed on a navy shirt.

Despite an expected deluge of distributed denial-of-service attacks aimed at the U.S. election infrastructure, such incidents were noted by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI to not be a threat to election security and integrity, reports BleepingComputer.

Attackers could deploy DDoS attacks to disrupt voter look-up systems and unofficial results reporting but not compromise election processes and internal systems to prevent the casting of votes, noted CISA and the FBI in a joint advisory. "Threat actors may falsely claim that DDoS attacks are indicative of a compromise related to the elections process as they seek to undermine confidence in U.S. elections. In recent years, DDoS attacks have been a popular tactic used by hacktivists and cyber criminals seeking to advance a social, political, or ideological cause," said the agencies, which urged voters to ensure official information sources and notify their local FBI field offices about DDoS incidents and other suspicious activity against election systems.

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