Earlier this month, Microsoft’s security threat division, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC), released a report on the efforts of state-sponsored hacker groups in China and North Korea. The MTAC stated that these groups are posting misinformation on US social media tools to to sow division in the country.
Today, the MTAC released another report, this time on possible efforts to influence the 2024 US presidential election, again through misinformation on social media. in a blog postThe MTAC noted that these efforts actually got off to a slow start this year compared to the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections, due to the fact that the primary election season had no major games.
However, the report says state-sponsored hacker groups based in Russia have begun ramping up their disinformation efforts in the past two months. They have been trying to spread false information about Russia’s current war with Ukraine. The blog post noted that one group, known as Storm-1516, has a pattern Specific to her misinformation efforts:
- A person presents as a whistleblower or journalist as a citizen, leaving a narrative in a specially constructed video channel
- The video is then covered by a global network of supposedly covertly managed websites
- Russian expatriates, officials and other travelers augment this coverage
The blog also mentions China again as a country sponsoring hacker efforts to increase political visibility in the US, with the use of images, videos and even memes generated by artificial intelligence tools. The blog also says that Iran could try to launch its own election influence efforts closer to the main US presidential day.
Microsoft says AI-generated “fake deep” videos of world leaders and candidates have so far not created much confusion and misinformation. However, simpler efforts, such as placing the logo of a real news organization on a fake story, had more impact. The MTAC expects this type of activity by these countries to increase in the months leading up to the US presidential election.