Why the US spy community is busier than ever thwarting foreign election interference

U.S. intelligence officials say the spy community's Foreign Malign Influence Center has been busier than ever this election cycle. Russia, they claim, remains most active in targeting U.S. elections, but China and Cuba are likely to try their hand at influencing American voters.

Iran is also interested in influencing the cycle, as it has in the past. But it's more focused on sowing chaos, and possibly even violence, than in promoting a particular candidate, according to two officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who briefed reporters Wednesday afternoon.

And foreign adversaries are likely to target "down ballot" local and state races in addition to the presidential race, the two officials said.

That race likely will be a rematch between President Joe Biden and the presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations.

This summer, election security officials from throughout the U.S. intelligence community will be gaming out how to respond to threats at election time. Those include how to identify and respond to foreign interference in real time and how to determine whether to warn campaigns or other targets privately or issue a public warning to the entire electorate if authorities believe the influence campaign has the potential to actually sway the outcome of a race.

Those officials are also focusing on how to rapidly determine if information potential voters are viewing is legitimate or if it is artificially altered or generated. Combatting deep fakes and other "synthetic media" created purely to confuse or influence voters is among the top priorities of U.S. election security efforts, the two officials said.

The Foreign Malign Influence Center focuses on election interference

The center the officials were discussing is tucked away on a tree-lined street in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Bethesda, Md. It is the U.S. intelligence community’s nerve center for trying to stop Russia, China, Iran, Israel or other foreign adversaries from meddling in U.S. elections. Known as the FMIC, it brings together officials from across the U.S. intelligence community to work on foreign election meddling threats.

The FMIC is following "a range of actors," including those tied to U.S. allies that also have an interest in who wins election on Nov. 5, one of the officials said.

Given the top-secret work that goes on there, intelligence officials who briefed reporters on the center's activities Wednesday did so from an undisclosed location, and they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss its operations. No cameras, smart watches or even tape recorders are allowed in the building.

The center, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, was established in 2022 to turbocharge U.S. intelligence efforts to stop foreigners from interfering in U.S. elections after authorities concluded the past two presidential campaigns had been affected by Russia and others.

Its director, Jessica Brandt, came onboard in late 2023 after serving for years in the think tank world on global disinformation and election-meddling activities.

Years worth of warnings about foreign meddling in US elections

It’s not news that Brandt and other intelligence officials are worried about the upcoming election. Brandt’s boss, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, testified about her deep concerns about election meddling at House and Senate “worldwide threats” hearings in May.

FBI Director Christopher Wray and other intelligence and law enforcement officials also have warned of possible meddling in this election cycle, especially from artificial intelligence and other fast-evolving technologies that can be used to manipulate video and audio that can then go viral at warp speed and influence potential voters.

“The U.S. has confronted foreign malign influence threats in the past,” Wray told Congress. “But this election cycle, the U.S. will face more adversaries, moving at a faster pace and enabled by new technology.”

Haines, who oversees all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, told lawmakers that Russia, by far, is the foreign government most significantly attempting to influence the U.S. election, followed by China and, increasingly, Iran.

More: Senate warns of unprecedented foreign interference in 2024 election

“Russia relies on a vast multimedia influence apparatus, which consists of its intelligence services, cyber actors, state media proxies and social media trolls” in order to sow chaos in the U.S. and undermine confidence in the integrity of its elections, Haines said.

China also has a sophisticated influence apparatus through which they leverage AI and other emerging technologies, Haines said, but it is too fearful of “possible blowback” to actually try to affect the outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

Last December, the National Security Agency, CIA and other intelligence agencies released the latest in a series of reports on the subject. This one said the Russian government – and hackers and other proxies under its control – tried to sway voters away from Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterm election cycle. Russia also deployed hackers and social media trolls and ads on behalf of Donald Trump's campaign in 2016. Trump and his allies in the Republican Party are less supportive of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion launched in 2022.

As they have in the past, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces also worked to sow chaos and undermine confidence in the overall American electoral process, the report said.

A background in the think tank world

Brandt is described in an ODNI statement as a “formidable expert” on all things election-meddling related, and as someone who “brings an intellectual command of foreign influence, information operations, and digital authoritarianism that will move the IC’s foreign malign influence mission forward.”

Her deputy can’t be identified publicly because that person, whose title is “Election Threats Executive,” is a long-service career intelligence community employee, officials said Wednesday.

What is foreign malign influence?

Congress defines foreign malign influence as a “hostile effort undertaken by, at the direction of, or on behalf of, or with the substantial support of” foreign countries to influence U.S. public opinion, politics, or policy.

Congress created the Foreign Malign Influence Center in 2019 for policymakers to better understand and respond to such threats. It’s one five mission centers within the ODNI; others focus on identifying and thwarting spies, terrorists, weapons proliferators and hackers, information warfare and other cyber threats.

One key mission of the Foreign Malign Influence Center is to provide indications, real-time warning and strategic assessments of new and and ongoing threats. To carry out its functions, the center is staffed with analysts from across the intelligence community who analyze data from all the different agencies to produce reports, assessments and alerts.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What US spies are doing to thwart foreign election interference