At RSA Conference 2023 during a session titled, Face the Music, Hany Farid, Professor at University of California at Berkley said the evolution of AI technologies is delivering us into a world where, “any image, audio, or video of anybody saying or doing anything can be fake, then nothing has to be real anymore. We can deny reality.”

It’s what Farid called “The Liar’s Dividend,”—the sowing of social discord by leveraging the power of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). Malicious actors, particularly those nation state actors whose motivation is to disrupt and dismantle democracy, thrive on the ability to make the masses question reality. Not surprisingly, these “agents of chaos” were behind the recent hack and leak attack on the Trump campaign.

In an interview with News Nation, cybersecurity expert Nicole Tisdale talked about the implications of foreign actors trying to influence US elections noting, “our foreign adversaries don’t prefer a party or a candidate. What they prefer is chaos and instability.” A new report issued by Google’s Threat Analysis Group confirmed that the Iranian hacking group allegedly serving the Revolutionary Guard Corp had targeted both the Trump and Biden campaigns.

Tisdale identified a number of different “worst case scenarios,” noting that the ultimate goal is to “make you question if democratic systems and institutions can keep you safe and secure.” To mitigate the risks of cyberattacks that could denigrate people’s faith in democracy, Tisdale offered two notable tips: 1) vote and 2) focus on building resilent systems.

To learn more about protecting elections, explore the content available in our Library and visit RSAC Marketplace where you can find a variety of service providers who can assist with your specific needs. 

Now let’s take a look at what else made industry headlines this week.

Aug. 16: Last month, the Cybernews research team discovered a massive data leak at Caja Los Andes, impacting 10 million Chileans.

Aug. 15: RansomHub ransomware operators are now deploying new malware to disrupt security software.

Aug. 15: A Russian man is serving 40 months in jail in the US after selling logins to nearly 3,000 accounts.

Aug. 14: A cyberattack hit Greater Manchester, a county in Northwest England, leaving thousands of residents vulnerable to a phishing scam.

Aug. 14: “Ivanti has rolled out security updates for a critical flaw in Virtual Traffic Manager that could be exploited to achieve an authentication bypass,” The Hacker News reported.

Aug. 13: The National Insititute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has finalized and released the first three post-quantum encryption standards.

Aug. 13: An Australian gold miner, Evolution Mining Ltd, is currently recovering from a ransomware infection that hit its IT systems.

Aug. 12: FBI announced they are investigating allegations that sensitive documents from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign were stolen in a cyber intrusion.

Aug. 12: An international investigation leads to shutdown of ransomware group known as Radar/Dispossessor.