A cybersecurity group has claimed that the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is actively taking steps to undermine the coming midterm elections in the United States, with just one week left to go.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the threat assessment comes from Mandiant, an intelligence and cybersecurity-focused organization that has worked with both the government and the public sector. Mandiant claims that the Chinese government has been using an army of fake social media accounts and fake news “websites” in order to “sow division both between the U.S. and its allies and within the U.S. political system itself.”
The elaborate Chinese operation, which the report calls “Dragonbridge,” is noted for its “aggressive attempts to discredit the U.S. democratic process, including attempts to discourage Americans from voting in the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.” Mandiant adds that it has “high confidence” that China’s attempts are “operating in support of the political interests of the People’s Republic of China.”
One example in this Chinese campaign was back in September, when accounts affiliated with the Dragonbridge operation all shared a video in English featuring “content attempting to discourage Americans from voting in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections,” and questioning “the efficacy of voting and of U.S. government institutions more broadly.”
John Hultquist, the head of threat intelligence for Mandiant, said in a statement that “such persistence, combined with clear intent and scale, renders the campaign a priority for monitoring.”
“What’s troubling is their aggressive growth,” Hultquist added, describing the Chinese efforts as even more dangerous than similar efforts by Iran and Russia in the past.