Election threats are focused on campaign systems, not voting machines

Source Domain: cyberscoop.com

Cybersecurity threats to the 2026 midterm elections are targeting the accounts and platforms that campaigns, donors and voters use to communicate, according to a security report released Monday by Check Point Software Technologies.

So far in this election cycle, threats are not aimed at voting machines or ballot-counting systems. Instead, threat actors are going after the email accounts, websites and fundraising platforms that election organizations depend on.

Jeremy Fuchs, a campaign manager for Check Point, told CyberScoop that the report’s core findings reflect a broader trend in cybersecurity: Bad actors are using AI to make their attacks larger and more effective.

“The barrier to entry is lower and the quality is so much higher than it was three years ago, 10 years ago, that everything is going to look more realistic and it’s going to be more effective at accomplishing whatever goals [attackers] have,” he said.

Email remains the easiest way for hackers to attack election-related groups. Check Point found that 82% of malicious attacks arrive through email. The report also found large numbers of stolen passwords from major fundraising sites. ActBlue, which collects donations for Democratic candidates, had about 9,500 stolen passwords. WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform, had about 6,500.

Fuchs noted that this information may not be directly used for election-related schemes, yet could be leveraged for opportunistic follow-on attempts at accessing other accounts.

“Whenever an exposure like this happens, whether it’s with a political site or not, oftentimes it’s saved for later,” he said. “If I have your email and password, if I have your phone number, I can just start an attack, a simple phishing attack that has nothing to do with the election right now.”

Threat actors are also registering many new websites with election-related names. In January, about 1,300 new websites included the word “election”…

Source