FBI and CISA Warn Election Officials of Phishing and Smishing Threats Ahead of 2026 Midterms
Summary
The FBI and CISA warn that election and campaign officials may face phishing and smishing aimed at stealing credentials or sensitive data, including attacks using convincing AI-generated messages and deepfakes. They recommend phishing-resistant MFA and other security措施.
Key points
- Election officials, candidates, and political organizations may be targeted because of their access to voter-registration data, government officials, and campaign information.
- The agencies say phishing attempts surged during the last two election cycles and the FBI saw more smishing attempts through encrypted chat applications within the past year.
- The PSA warns that AI-generated language and deepfake audio or video can make fraudulent messages and identities more convincing.
- The FBI and CISA recommend phishing-resistant MFA, especially for email, VPNs, and accounts accessing critical systems.
- Organizational steps include staff training, confirming unusual requests through secondary channels, reporting suspicious emails to IT, and filtering spam and executable attachments.
- The PSA also recommends strong unique passphrases, timely software updates, SPF and DKIM, and role-based least-privilege access.
Article Details
- Defense Focus
- Help election officials and campaign organizations detect and resist phishing and smishing, protect credentials and sensitive information, and strengthen defenses against malware and account compromise.
- Detection Methods
- Check potentially malicious content for credentials or watermarking that may indicate it was generated by super intelligence.
- Train personnel to recognize phishing and smishing, and verify unsolicited or anomalous requests for sensitive information through a secondary channel.
- Route suspicious emails to IT for review and identify external messages with a banner.
- Data Sources
- Email messages and attachments
- Mobile messages, including messages received through encrypted chat applications
- Content credentials or watermarking in potentially malicious content
- Evidence of system or network compromise
- Rule Types
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
- DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
- Email spam filtering
- Filtering of executable email attachments
- Defensive Actions
- Implement phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication, particularly for email, VPNs, and accounts that access critical systems.
- Maintain up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware software and keep operating systems and other software patched.
- Use strong spam filters and block executable files from reaching end users.
- Require strong, unique passphrases for password-based accounts; do not reuse or store them where an adversary could access them. Use unique passwords for local administrative accounts.
- If compromise is suspected, require passphrase changes for affected accounts.
- Apply least privilege and regularly review access.
- Document security incidents and remediation activities.
- Educate employees to avoid opening attachments from unknown senders and to confirm sensitive requests through secondary channels.
MITRE ATT&CK
Industries
Electionsof 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 phishing1Governmentattractive targets to malicious cyber criminals due to their access to voter registration data, current government officials, or sensitive campaign information.