Athena Strategies President Kathy Boockvar was interviewed by Liz Landers for a PBS NewsHour feature examining recently identified cybersecurity threats ahead of the midterm elections.
The piece centers on a report from the cybersecurity firm Check Point, covering topics ranging from credential theft to artificial intelligence (AI) to foreign interference. Boockvar cautioned in her conversation with PBS that we should be wary of reports like this, which often use approaches and tone that fuel fear in order to sell products and services. This is a complex challenge faced by officials and other partners: balancing the need to educate the public about risks without inadvertently provoking voter anxiety or distrust.
Nevertheless, the report discusses important threats which government officials should be aware of and prepare for, and Boockvar noted that the data is “consistent with what we’ve heard from federal agencies and other private sector entities that are tracking threats.”
One section of the report details a substantial spike in new website domain registrations using keywords like “election” and “vote.” While registering a domain is not an inherently malicious act, researchers warn that these sites expand the pool of platforms available for potential phishing, voter and donor fraud, and disinformation.
Boockvar noted that the trend aligns with broader threat intelligence patterns. “Seeing that these websites are continuing to grow is of significant concern, on top of what’s already a concerning status quo,” Boockvar said, referring to the rapid amplification of mis- and disinformation over the last six years.
The PBS piece also covers the reduction in communication and resources between federal agencies and local election officials. Commenting on the current environment under the second Trump administration, Boockvar observed, “It is a very different landscape in terms of the federal, state, local collaboration, information sharing, and supportive infrastructure than it was in every other election cycle in the last 10 years.”
Read the full story on PBS NewsHour: Why a surge of election-related websites could spell rising cyber threats for the midterms