Russian Election Interference Efforts Targeting Harris Campaign: Microsoft

People cast early ballots in the general election at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Nov. 7, 2022. Eff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

Russian state-backed efforts to interfere in the U.S. presidential elections have begun to focus on targeting the campaigns of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, according to a new report by Microsoft.

The Sep. 17 report details an uptick in Russia-backed influence operations aimed at discrediting the Democrat presidential ticket by spreading fabricated stories and images online.

The shift is notable, according to the report, as up until now Russian cyber actors had appeared slow to shift their efforts away from targeting President Joe Biden.

“The shift to focusing on the Harris-Walz campaign reflects a strategic move by Russian actors aimed at exploiting any perceived vulnerabilities in the new candidates,” the report reads.

“As we inch closer to the election, we should expect Russian actors to continue to use cyber proxies and hacktivist groups to amplify their messages … to spread divisive political content, staged videos, and AI-enhanced propaganda.”

The publication of the report follows closely behind a U.S. effort to sanction Russian media outlet RT and several of its affiliates for allegedly embedding elements of Russian intelligence into their operations and for coordinating with Moscow on skewing news coverage to be more favorable of Kremlin narratives.

The new report focuses on three Russian threat actors which have been known and tracked closely for several years, known as Storm-1516, Storm-1679, and Ruza Flood.

The three groups have successfully generated hundreds of thousands of views and engagements on social media through proxy accounts claiming to be Americans.

The content shared by the groups includes videos that claim to depict Harris supporters attacking a supporter of former President Donald Trump and evidence that Harris paralyzed a young girl in a hit-and-run accident.

Both videos were fake and laundered through websites claiming to be American news sites but which appear to have been established to spread foreign influence.

Most of the personas established on social media by Storm-1852 claim to be conservative U.S. voters who support Trump, but there are also accounts that spread anti-Trump content and use political slogans and hashtags associated with the American left.

Another report by Microsoft last month found that Iranian-backed actors were targeting Trump’s campaign, attempting to gain access to the campaign’s inner circle.

Speaking earlier in the day at the Politico AI and Tech Summit in Washington, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency senior adviser Cait Conley said the use of artificial intelligence was exacerbating “existing risks” to U.S. elections, allowing threat actors to more quickly and convincingly create misleading videos, text, and images.

She added that the United States was investing in appropriate measures to maintain the security of the electoral process, and that she remained “confident in the security and resilience in our democratic process.”

Still, she said, there may be some “disruptions” to the forthcoming presidential election in November.

“You may see disruptions this fall. That does not mean that the security or the integrity of the process has been undermined,” Conley said.

“These risks are not new. These threats are not new.”