GREGORY SIMS

The approach of the US election season is a good time to reflect on cyber threats to our political process, particularly from foreign state adversaries due to their vast resources, advanced capabilities, and malign intent. Cyber threats to our election system also come from other sources, such as hacktivists and criminal organizations, but while they too can create problems, they are not on the same scale or level of competence as those posed by autocratic states like China, Russia, and Iran.

The threat from nation state threat actors will loom much larger in 2023 as the gloves come off between the market-based democracies and authoritarian adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran. Up to now the narrative about cybersecurity has mostly centered on criminal threats. Next year will bring greater attention to state-conducted and state-sponsored cyber espionage efforts and infrastructure attacks.