As the election season approaches, Britain is likely to face a lot of hacking and campaigns spreading false information.
The election in Britain is at the beginning of next month, and a lot of people think there will be a lot of problems with fake news, AI, and possible hacking.
A lot of people in the U.K. will be voting at polling places on election day, so CEO of identity security company Okta Todd McKinnon said, “I expect the majority of cybersecurity risks to show up in the months leading up to the day itself.”
During the 2016 election, both the US and UK elections had a lot of problems with hacking. Social media was used to spread false information, and deep fakes were already showing up.
Since then, attacks by state actors have become common in many countries to try to change the results of these polls. The UK said that the Chinese hacking group APT 31 tried to get into the email accounts of some UK politicians. These claims were not true, according to China, which called them “groundless.”
Cybersecurity experts think that hackers will do bad things and share false information during the election period. As technology has improved, these hacks have become even more common and easier for people to do with the help of artificial intelligence.
As it gets easier, these hacks, deep fakes, and false information are likely to become even more common, say experts.
McKinnon says, “Cybercriminals and nation-state actors are likely to use identity-based attacks powered by AI, such as phishing, social engineering, ransomware, and supply chain compromises, to target politicians, campaign staff, and election-related institutions.”
Also, experts say that China, Russia, and Iran are likely to try to spread false information during future polls.
