Cybersecurity Chief Says Foreign Interference Won’t Significantly Alter US Election Results

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, testifies before a House committee, in Washington, on Jan. 31, 2024. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said that America’s election systems are so secure that foreign adversaries will be unable to manipulate the outcome of the 2024 presidential election in a “material” way.

Easterly made the remarks in an Oct. 2 interview with The Associated Press, in which she said that foreign powers are actively seeking to influence U.S. voters and sow discord but that they lack the ability to interfere with core election infrastructure such as vote casting and ballot counting.

“Malicious actors, even if they tried, could not have an impact at scale such that there would be a material effect on the outcome of the election,” Easterly told the outlet.

U.S. intelligence agencies continue to raise concerns about disinformation and influence operations by foreign powers ahead of the Nov. 5 election. A recent update from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) warned that countries such as Russia, Iran, and China are ramping up the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to shape public opinion in the United States.

According to the ODNI report, AI has accelerated foreign influence operations. Russia’s efforts include the use of AI to produce misleading election-related content, from fake audio and videos to fabricated narratives. Iran has focused on generating fake news articles and social media posts to stoke divisions among U.S. voters. China’s efforts have been more indirect, aiming to shape global perceptions of its own policies while amplifying U.S. domestic issues such as illegal immigration and drug policy.

Easterly acknowledged these attempts to influence public opinion in the United States, noting that China is “very interested” in swaying the 2024 election. However, she stressed that no cyber activities targeting America’s voting systems had been detected thus far.

“We have not seen specific cyber activity designed to interfere with actual election infrastructure or processes,” Easterly said.

Several surveys have pointed to concerns over the integrity of U.S. elections, including doubts about their honesty and openness and the potential impacts of AI or foreign interference.

One survey, carried out by the Public Affairs Council found that just 37 percent of Americans believe the 2024 election will be “honest and open.”

Another survey from the University of South Florida found that a majority of U.S. voters think the federal government hasn’t done enough to deter foreign actors from interfering with this year’s presidential election.

And a survey published in May by the Imagining the Digital Future Center at Elon University found that 78 percent of Americans think the upcoming election will be influenced by “abuses” related to AI-generated content that spreads on social media.

“Many aren’t sure they can sort through the garbage they know will be polluting campaign-related content,” Lee Rainie, director of the Digital Future Center, said in a statement.

In March, The Epoch Times reported on the rising influence of political memes on election discourse. At the time, Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center, told The Epoch Times that deep fakes—which are realistic images, videos, and audio typically created by generative AI software—can and do effectively fool people.

Rutledge said that even if the content is obviously fake or of low quality, the messages can still be persuasive if they confirm people’s political biases.

Austin Alonzo contributed to this report.