The top counterintelligence official in the U.S. government answered calls for more transparency ahead of November’s presidential election Friday, and revealed the government’s assessment of ongoing interference efforts by China, Russia, and Iran.
William Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said that it’s U.S. government’s assessment that China prefers President Trump lose the election, because Beijing considers him “unpredictable,” while Russia is working to undermine Democrat Joe Biden.
“Ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections, foreign states will continue to use covert and overt influence measures in their attempts to sway U.S. voters’ preferences and perspectives, shift U.S. policies, increase discord in the United States, and undermine the American people’s confidence in our democratic process,” said William Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, in a statement.
China has grown more aggressive in recent months criticizing the U.S. response to the Coronavirus, although Evanina noted that the country continues to weigh the “risks and benefits of aggressive action” when it comes to influencing the election.
Russia, however, has been observed using a number of tactics, including spreading propaganda on social media and Russian television, to instead denigrate former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Iran seeks to undermine U.S. institutions and President Trump, and to divide the country ahead of the election, according to 360aproko news.
The statement did not reference any specific cyber attack attempts on the part of any of three countries, in the style of Russia in 2016. And Evanina noted that it would be difficult, due to the disparate nature of America’s election infrastructure, to affect vote tallying at scale.
Similarly, in a speech earlier this week, Chris Krebs, who is the Department of Homeland Security’s top cybersecurity official, said his team had seen “nothing at the directed, focused level of 2016.”
“2020 will be the most protected and most secure election in modern history,” Krebs said.
However, Google revealed earlier this summer that Chinese and Iranian-linked hackers were observed trying to hack into the email accounts of campaign staffers for both Trump and Biden. There were no signs the attempts were successful.
