Cyber threats aimed at influencing election results are becoming increasingly common globally — and foreign activities will most likely attempt to influence Canada’s next federal election, scheduled for 2025.
The Canadian Center for Cyber Security’s new report released Wednesday reveals that foreign operations will likely use online disinformation and generative artificial intelligence to target Canadian federal elections over the next two years.
Misinformation, which has already become pervasive during the national elections, could be exacerbated by the blocking of Canadian news on certain platforms in response to the Online News Act. Since this summer, Meta has permanently blocked access to news on its social networks in Canada.
“We believe that, in the absence of news from Canadian sources, young Canadians are likely at much greater risk of being exposed to misleading news content, which could be part of broader disinformation or influence campaigns” , we can read in the report.
In addition to disinformation campaigns, the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create and propagate false content is increasingly common. The production capacity of this content has notably been accelerated due to its accessibility through large technology companies such as Meta, Google and OpenAI.
Generative AI can produce various types of content, including text, images, audio, and video, sometimes called “hyperfakes.” This synthetic content can be used in influence campaigns to secretly manipulate online information and, at the same time, influence the opinions and behaviors of voters.
Recent example: Pro-Russian cyberthreat actors used generative AI to create a fake that features Ukrainian President Zelensky announcing Ukraine’s surrender following Russia’s invasion of the country.
“We believe it is very likely that foreign adversaries or hacktivists will use generative AI to influence voting in Canada’s upcoming federal elections,” the report’s researchers write.
Cyber threats linked to democratic processes represent a growing scourge on a global scale. The proportion of electoral processes targeted by cyber threat activities more than doubled between 2015 and 2022, from 10% to 22%.
Last year, just over a quarter (26%) of all national electoral processes worldwide were affected by at least one cyber incident.
More details will follow.