Election Interlopers Register 5K+ Domains, Hope To Catch Some Voting Phish
Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:
The biggest threat to America's midterm elections in November likely isn't foreign attackers hacking US voting machines. Phishing and election-official impersonation are the bigger risks, according to Check Point, which documented more than 5,000 election-themed domains registered between April and May.
These domains can be used by attackers for phishing, impersonation, fraud, misinformation, or influence activity, especially when coupled with about 17,000 exposed credentials associated with fundraising orgs, political parties, and government-related services also spotted by the security shop's intelligence arm in May.
"Election-related domains and leaked credentials represent two sides of the same problem: infrastructure and access," Danielle Hess, a cyber threat intelligence analyst at Check Point Software, told The Register.
"A rise in election-themed domains not only creates more potential infrastructure that could be abused for phishing or impersonation, but also reflects a growing election-related ecosystem with more organizations, accounts, and users that can be targeted," Hess said. "When combined with a large pool of exposed credentials, attackers have more opportunities to conduct convincing and scalable election-related operations."
Plus, AI gives phishing, impersonation, election misinformation and other scam operations a massive boost, making them faster, cheaper, and easier to scale.
The uptick in election-related threats follows the Trump administration's efforts to gut America's lead cyber-defense agency and decimate its efforts to combat election-related fraud, while slashing its budget and workforce, and shutting down the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC).
According to a Monday report, Check Point has been monitoring registered domains and documented about 1,300 containing the keyword "election" and 2,957 containing "vote" in January. Three months later, between April 13 and May 14, about 1,140 newly registered domains contained the word "election," while the number containing "vote" had climbed to about 4,010.
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