FBI chief warns of possible 2020 interference from Russia, China

https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/468190-fbi-chief-warns-of-possible-2020-interference-from-russia-china

By Maggie Miller - 10/30/19 03:57 PM EDT

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday testified that he expects Russian actors to attempt to interfere in the 2020 elections, adding that he also expects countries like China to explore disinformation efforts.

“Some of the things that the Russians have tried in other countries we expect them to try to do here as well, it’s pretty common to test it out in other jurisdictions, thankfully we don’t have elections every year, so that gives us a little bit of time to plan ahead,” Wray testified in regards to potential attacks on U.S. elections to the House Homeland Security Committee.

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Wray noted that while the FBI has not seen “any intention” from China, Iran and North Korea to attempt attacks on election infrastructure, these countries are “clearly interested in engaging in malign foreign influence” in regards to elections, such as through social media disinformation efforts.

“They all have different ways of going about it, but they are all taking pages out of each others’ playbooks, and as we project forward that is something that we have to be vigilant about,” Wray said of the three countries.

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Mueller found that Russian individuals launched a sweeping attack on the 2016 elections that included both hacking and disinformation efforts and that was intended to benefit now-President Trump.

While there was no evidence that any votes were changed in 2016, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded in volume one of its investigation that all 50 states were targeted by Russian cyber actors looking to interfere in the elections.

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