The Fortinet The 2024 U.S. presidential election is the target of increasing cyber threats, according to FortiGuard Labs, as different cybercriminals turn their attention to American organizations, voters, and the voting process.
Cyber adversaries, such as state-sponsored organizations and hacktivist groups are increasingly taking advantage of the election environment, according to the FortiGuard Labs Threat Intelligence Report. The significance of comprehending, these cyber threats was emphasized by Derek Manky, Chief Security Strategist and Vice President of Global Threat Intelligence, Fortinet. “It’s difficult to identify and comprehend the cyber threats.
Read More From Cybersecurity
That could affect the election’s credibility and integrity as well as the welfare of the voting public as the 2024 U.S. presidential election, draws near before important events like elections, cyber adversaries such as state-sponsored actors and hacktivist groups become more active.
It is essential to stay alert and to recognize and evaluate potential cyber threats and vulnerabilities in order to prepare and protect against the lures and targeted cyberattacks that could exploit a vulnerable moment and even tamper with or affect election results.
The report clarifies a number of dangers, such as malicious domain registrations and phishing schemes that are specifically intended to target voters. One interesting finding is that, threat actors are charging USD 1,260 per phishing kit on the darknet. These kits pose as presidential candidates in the United States and may collect personal information like names, addresses and credit card numbers. Which are frequently connected to political contributions.
Read More From Tech News
FortiGuard Labs has monitored more than 1,000 newly registered domains since January 2024. That resemble political figures and election-related content in addition to phishing scams. This raises additional concerns, about possible misuse to trick unwary people. These domains highlight the substantial risk involved in such high-stakes events. As they are designed to draw traffic related to elections.
According to additional research from FortiGuard Labs, there is a worrying trend of private information being sold on darknet forums. An estimated 3% of these posts are connected to government and corporate databases, and billions of records, including Social Security numbers (SSNs) and other personally identifiable information (PII), are reportedly available. Such data poses a significant risk for identity theft, phishing scams and disinformation campaigns.
Read More From Generative Artificial Intelligence News
The report claims that ransomware attacks against government agencies in the United States have risen by 28% in comparison to the previous year. This spike threatens the electoral process and public trust. In the lead-up to national elections this highlights the vulnerability of government operations.
The legitimacy and resilience of fraudulent domains appear to have increased, as a result of malicious actors using trustworthy hosting services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Cloudflare. As well as centralizing IP address management, making detection and mitigation more difficult.
Read More Brit News Hub
The report recommends, putting stringent cybersecurity measures in place to guard against these threats. Enhancing employee training is one suggestion for stopping cyber intrusions. implementing multi-factor authentication and keeping software systems current. The goal of these steps is to strengthen defenses, against the strategies, used by cyber adversaries during this crucial time.
