China, Russia and Iran “most likely” will use artificial intelligence to try to interrupt the next federal elections in Canada, a new evaluation of the communications security establishment that Canada says, but it is unlikely that the general integrity of the vote is unlikely.
The annual report on cyber threats to Canadian democracy, Run on Thursday, he said that cybercounts linked to those countries will probably use tools and generative methods of AI and methods such as Deepfakes to spread the misinformation “designed to plant the division between Canadians and boost the narratives conducive to the interests of foreign states.”
Politicians and Canadian political parties will probably be attacked with phishing scams and hack-and-lok operations to sow more discord, according to the report.
“We evaluate that the RPC, Russia and Iran will probably use tools enabled for AI to try to interfere with the Democratic Process of Canada before and during the 2025 elections,” says the CSE report and its Canadian cyber security center, using the acronym of the People's Republic of China.
“However, we evaluate that hostile actors are very unlikely to carry out a destructive cyber attack against electoral infrastructure, such as trying to paralyze telecommunications systems on election day, outside the imminent or direct armed conflict.”
The report also underlines Canadian public figures of “high risk”, particularly women and people LGBTQ2+, face Deepfake pornography. This content can deter people from applying for a political position, and will continue to grow without adequate regulations, warns.
“In addition, we evaluate that it is likely that, on at least one occasion, that content is sown to deliberately sabotage the campaign of a candidate who runs for a position,” says the report.
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The final report of the Federal Public Research on the foreign interference published last month said that misinformation represents the greatest threat to Canadian democracy. He said that the emergence of artificial intelligence was behind that evaluation.
The CSE report said that the improvements in quality, affordability and accessibility of generative technology have allowed an increase in the use of these tools to attack elections worldwide.
The agency said that more than a quarter of all elections between 2O23 and 2024 saw attempts to interference and influence, compared to only one identified in the previous two years.
He pointed out multiple cyber incidents during the US presidential elections last year, including the deep AI candidates and the hack of the campaign of US President Donald Trump by actors backed by Iran, as notable examples.
The agencies said that China and Russia were behind most of the campaigns enabled for the most attributable against elections worldwide in the last two years, while they pointed out that they could not attribute most of those campaigns to specific actors, and will continue to be in the future.
The defects and material generated by foreign actors are generally amplified by “ingenious or involuntary actors from within the objective state,” he said, noting that such material generated by abroad does not gain much traction for itself.
“CSE is ready to carry out foreign cyber operations to defend our country against hostile threats, if necessary. At the same time, Canadians can help safeguard democracy when thinking critically about the information they see online, ”said the head of CSE, Caroline Xavier, in a statement that accompanies the report.
At the same time, the agency said the AI is also being used to help foreign states more quickly analyze the data collected from specific systems through mass piracy operations.
“The national states, in particular, the RPC, are carrying out massive data collection campaigns, collecting billions of data on democratic politicians, public figures and citizens around the world,” the report said.
“Advances in the predictive AI allow human analysts to quickly consult and analyze these data. We evaluate that such states are likely to obtain a better understanding of democratic political environments as a result, “he added, and” almost surely is improving their abilities to perform specific influence and espionage campaigns. “
A threat bulletin posted on Monday By the Canadian Cyber Security Center he warned that cyber actors sponsored by China were pointing at all levels of the Canadian government, including federal, provincial, municipal and indigenous institutions.
He pointed out that federal government agencies had been committed by CDC cyber threat actors more than 20 times in recent years, and warned about the activity of “almost constant recognition” by China against Canadian government systems.
“Taken together, the RPC cyber actors have both the volume of resources and the sophistication to pursue multiple government objectives in Canada simultaneously,” said the bulletin.
Foreign interference research occurred after Global News and other media reported on alleged attempts at actors such as China to end up the Canadian elections and democratic institutions. The final report confirmed that multiple attempts of interference really occurred.
The Government has launched new measures since then to monitor and alert the public about foreign interference attempts, including a working group that supervises threat elections.
Last month, the Chrystia Freeland liberal leadership campaign was warned of a misinformation campaign sponsored by China that disseminates false news articles on her on WhatsApp.
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