Foreign threats to the U.S. election are growing, and officials are moving faster to denounce them

Officials say the U.S. election system is so secure that no foreign country can alter the results on the scale necessary to change the outcome. Nevertheless, authoritarian opponents have used disinformation and cyber espionage to target campaigns and voters while stoking distrust and disunity.

Here’s what you need to know as the presidential election approaches:

Russia is the most active and advanced country working to manipulate the US elections, using fake websites, state-controlled media and unwitting Americans to spread misleading and polarizing content aimed at destroying confidence in the elections undermine.

The Kremlin’s disinformation apparatus deals with controversial issues such as immigration, crime, the economy or disaster relief. The aim is to weaken the US, erode support for Ukraine as it fights Russian intrusions and reduce America’s ability to counter Russia’s growing ties with China, North Korea and Iran, officials say.

Intelligence officials and private security analysts have determined that Russia is backing former President Donald Trump and using disinformation — sometimes AI-generated — to smear his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, proposed cuts to Ukraine’s funding and repeatedly criticized the NATO military alliance.

In a particularly daring campaign, Russia staged a video falsely accusing Harris of paralyzing a woman in a car accident years ago. Another video included fictional accusations against Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

On Friday, the FBI confirmed Moscow’s role in creating a third video allegedly showing the destruction of ballots in Pennsylvania. Local election officials quickly debunked the video as fake.

Russia has also tried to pay American influencers who spread the Kremlin’s favorite stories. Last month, US authorities accused two Russian state media employees of funneling $10 million to a Tennessee company to create pro-Russian content. The company then paid several popular right-wing influencers, who said they had no idea their work was being supported by Russia.

The campaign in Moscow does not end on election day. Instead, intelligence officials and private security analysts predict that Russia will exploit claims of election irregularities to suggest the results cannot be trusted. Russia could also encourage violent post-election protests, according to a recently released intelligence memo.

“Putin’s goal is to foment chaos, division and polarization in our society,” said Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia who now teaches at Stanford University.

Russia has rejected claims that it wants to influence the US elections. A message left at the Russian embassy in Washington was not immediately returned Saturday.

Iran has been a particularly brazen player in foreign interference this year.

It is accused of hacking Trump campaign officials and offering the stolen communications to media organizations and Democrats, hoping to surface damaging stories that could damage the Republican’s prospects. Emails containing trash were sent to people associated with President Joe Biden’s campaign, but there is no indication anyone responded, officials say.

The Justice Department last month indicted three Iranian hackers who remain at large, accusing them of a years-long operation targeting a wide range of victims.

U.S. officials have described the hacking as part of a broader effort to interfere in elections that Iran sees as particularly consequential. Iran, they say, has made clear its opposition to the Trump campaign. His government ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iranian leaders to retaliate.

In addition to the cyber operations, U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed concern about the possibility that Iran will commit violence on U.S. soil against Trump or other members of his administration. Officials filed charges in 2022 in connection with a foiled Iranian plot to assassinate Trump national security adviser John Bolton, and this year they indicted a Pakistani man linked to Iran in a plot to carry out political assassinations in the US, possibly also on Trump.

Leaders in Tehran could also try to encourage violent protests after the elections, the released intelligence memo said. Authorities say Iran also covertly financed and supported protests in the US over Israel’s war in Gaza.

Iranian authorities have rejected accusations that the country is trying to influence the elections. The Iranian Mission to the United Nations released a statement this week saying: “Iran has no motive or intention to interfere in the US elections.”

U.S. intelligence officials believe China is taking a more neutral stance in the election and focusing on down-ballot races, attacking candidates from both parties based on their positions on issues of critical importance to Beijing, including support for Taiwan.

But for years the Chinese government has been running a sophisticated hacking operation that targets all modes of Western life and industry, going far beyond the influence of elections.

“From the council to the president, they want access,” said Adam Darrah, a former CIA political analyst and now vice president of intelligence at the cybersecurity firm ZeroFox, which tracks foreign online threats.

News broke Friday that Chinese hackers had targeted cellphones used by Trump, his running mate JD Vance and people associated with Harris’ campaign as part of a much broader spying effort. It was not immediately clear what data, if any, was accessed.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said they were not aware of the details and could not comment, but asserted that China routinely falls victim to cyber attacks and opposes this activity.

Hardly. Foreign adversaries, including those now blamed for interference, have tried to interfere in recent election cycles — with varying degrees of success.

But the US government, accused of relying on information about the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 election, has worked hard this year to aggressively denounce foreign threats as part of an effort to reduce its impact and assure Americans that the elections are secure.

In 2016, Russian military intelligence officers hacked the email accounts of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and the Democratic Party and released tens of thousands of messages in an effort to boost Trump’s successful presidential campaign.

Russia also engaged in a massive but covert social media trolling campaign that year, aimed at sowing discord over current social issues, creating divisions in the US electoral process and damaging Clinton’s bid for the presidency.

The antics continued into the 2020 election cycle when a Ukrainian lawmaker, described by U.S. officials at the time as an “active Russian agent,” released audio recordings of Democrat Joe Biden, who was then running for president.

That same year, Iranian hackers were blamed for emails allegedly from the far-right group The Proud Boys that officials said were intended to damage Trump’s candidacy.