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Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski speaks during a press conference.
Poland sounds the Russia cyber alarm
Georgia, a former Soviet republic that’s now independent, has facedpolitical crisis and social unrest over claims that Russia is manipulating its politics. Romania was forced to void an election result andrerun the vote late last year on similar charges of Russian meddling.
The charge isn’t new. Ukraine’sOrange Revolution (2004-05) began in response to an election result that protesters asserted had been determined by Vladimir Putin. And the charges of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential race made headlines, though there was no evidence the Russians were successful enough to determine the outcome.
Today, Europeans are particularly on edge, because new elections are coming in both Germany and the Czech Republic. Russia has suffered more than700,000 casualties in Ukraine, according to US officials. Its ability to wage conventional war has sustained enormous damage. All the more reason, European officials fear, for Russia to use cyber strikes and sabotage attacks to pressure their governments to cut their backing for Ukraine.People take part in New Year celebrations near the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral in central Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 1, 2025.
AI election interference spurs US sanctions
The United States has imposed sanctions on two organizations in Iran and Russia, accusing them of attempting to interfere in the 2024 presidential election through AI-fueled disinformation campaigns.
Iran’s Cognitive Design Production Center, linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Russia’s Center for Geopolitical Expertise, associated with Russia’s military intelligence agency, stand accused of using artificial intelligence to create deepfake videos, fake news sites, and social media posts to manipulate voters and undermine trust in the US electoral process.
“The governments of Iran and Russia have … sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Bradley T. Smith, the Treasury Department’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement on Tuesday. Both Russia and Iran deny the allegations.
In more cyber news, US officials said Monday that Chinese state-linked hackers breached major US agencies including the Treasury Department in early December and major telecoms firms in September. The cyber-espionage campaigns targeted sensitive data and political figures, accessing employee workstations and unclassified documents. Incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz says foreign hackers must face “higher costs and consequences,” but Beijing dismissed the accusations as attempts to “smear and slander China.”