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Microsoft: Cybercriminals increasingly help Russia, China, Iran target US, allies

WASHINGTON — Russia, China and Iran are increasingly relying on criminal networks to lead cyberespionage and hacking operations against adversaries such as the United States, according to a report on digital threats published Tuesday by Microsoft.

The growing collaboration between authoritarian governments and criminal hackers has alarmed national security officials and cybersecurity experts. They say it represents the increasingly blurred lines between actions directed by Beijing or the Kremlin aimed at undermining rivals and the illicit activities of groups typically more interested in financial gain.

In one example, Microsoft’s analysts found that a criminal hacking group with links to Iran infiltrated an Israeli dating site and then tried to sell or ransom the personal information it obtained. Microsoft concluded the hackers had two motives: to embarrass Israelis and make money.

In another, investigators identified a Russian criminal network that infiltrated more than 50 electronic devices used by the Ukrainian military in June, apparently seeking access and information that could aid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There was no obvious financial motive for the group, aside from any payment they may have received from Russia.

Marriage of convenience

For nations such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, teaming up with cybercriminals offers a marriage of convenience with benefits for both sides. Governments can boost the volume and effectiveness of cyber activities without added cost. For the criminals, it offers new avenues for profit and the promise of government protection.

“We’re seeing in each of these countries this trend toward combining nation-state and cybercriminal activities,” said Tom Burt, Microsoft’s vice president of customer security and trust.

So far there is no evidence suggesting that Russia, China and Iran are sharing resources with each other or working with the same criminal networks, Burt said. But he said the growing use of private cyber “mercenaries” shows how far America’s adversaries will go to weaponize the internet.

Microsoft’s report analyzed cyber threats between July 2023 and June 2024, looking at how criminals and foreign nations use hacking, spear phishing, malware and other techniques to gain access and control over a target’s system. The company says its customers face more than 600 million such incidents every day.

Russia focused much of its cyber operations on Ukraine, trying to enter military and government systems and spreading disinformation designed to undermine support for the war among its allies.

Ukraine has responded with its own cyber efforts, including one last week that knocked some Russian state media outlets offline.

US elections targeted

Networks tied to Russia, China and Iran have also targeted American voters, using fake websites and social media accounts to spread false and misleading claims about the 2024 election. Analysts at Microsoft agree with the assessment of U.S. intelligence officials who say Russia is targeting the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, while Iran is working to oppose former President Donald Trump.

Iran has also hacked into Trump’s campaign and sought, unsuccessfully, to interest Democrats in the material. Federal officials have also accused Iran of covertly supporting American protests over the war in Gaza.

Russia and Iran will likely accelerate the pace of their cyber operations targeting the U.S. as election day approaches, Burt said.

China, meanwhile, has largely stayed out of the presidential race, focusing its disinformation on down-ballot races for Congress or state and local office. Microsoft found networks tied to Beijing also continue to target Taiwan and other countries in the region.

Denials from all parties

In response, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said allegations that China partners with cybercriminals are groundless and accused the U.S. of spreading its own “disinformation about the so-called Chinese hacking threats.”

In a statement, spokesperson Liu Pengyu said that “our position is consistent and clear. China firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cybertheft in all forms.”

Russia and Iran have also rejected accusations that they’re using cyber operations to target Americans. Messages left with representatives of those three nations and North Korea were not returned Monday.

Efforts to disrupt foreign disinformation and cyber capabilities have escalated along with the threat, but the anonymous, porous nature of the internet sometimes undercuts the effectiveness of the response.

Federal authorities recently announced plans to seize hundreds of website domains used by Russia to spread election disinformation and to support efforts to hack former U.S. military and intelligence figures. But investigators at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab found that sites seized by the government can easily and quickly be replaced.

Within one day of the Department of Justice seizing several domains in September, for example, researchers spotted 12 new websites created to take their place. One month later, they continue to operate.
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As US presidential vote looms, newsrooms focus on how to stay safe

Washington/New York — On a rainy day in September, a group of journalists gathered in a nondescript office building outside Washington. Some were seasoned reporters, others still students. But they were all there to learn how to stay safe while covering elections and unrest.

Organized by the International Women’s Media Foundation, or IWMF, the training session was part of a national campaign to teach journalists based in the United States how to stay safe on assignment, including while reporting on the presidential campaign.

Over the past year, the IWMF has trained more than 620 journalists across 13 states.

“This safety tour has really been illuminating. Unfortunately, what we are hearing is quite alarming, and it’s not just about election reporting,” IWMF executive director Elisa Lees Munoz told VOA. “What we’re understanding more and more is that literally every beat in America has become a polarizing beat, and therefore has become a dangerous beat.”

Three times as many journalists have been arrested in the U.S. this year compared to last year, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. More journalists have been assaulted too, according to the group’s data.

“We’re seeing journalists still struggling every day to uphold that basic right of freedom of the press,” Kirstin McCudden, the Tracker’s managing editor, told VOA at the group’s office in Brooklyn. “It’s a little alarming.”

Many of the incidents took place during pro-Palestine protests. In one case, three photojournalists were arrested in Chicago in August while covering a protest on the outskirts of the Democratic National Convention.

“Police departments feel that they have the power to violate the rights of journalists. Then what ends up happening is it turns into a snowball effect. More police agencies crack down even harder,” said Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which publishes the Tracker.

While press freedom is often a local issue, it also matters what presidential candidates are saying and how they treat the press, multiple analysts said.

The campaign of former President Donald Trump has been punctuated by the same kinds of attacks against the media that characterized his presidency, the analysts who spoke with VOA said.

Leading up to and during Trump’s presidency, Stephanie Sugars, a senior reporter at the Tracker, documented more than 2,000 anti-media posts by Trump on the social media platform X, then known as Twitter. The tenor of those posts evolved from targeting individual journalists to targeting specific news outlets to targeting the media industry writ large.

“A lot of that rhetoric is still in play and is part of his playbook,” Sugars said. She added that the Tracker would monitor anti-media posts from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris if those kinds of posts existed.

Sugars cautioned against solely blaming Trump for the increased hostility facing journalists in the U.S. But, she said, he hasn’t helped the situation either.

“If you sow distrust in these sorts of external sources and really encourage your followers, those who support you, to only believe what you specifically say, that’s a great way to maintain firm control over what the narrative is, what truth is understood to be, and that’s an incredible amount of power to have,” Sugars said.

McCudden agreed. “Rhetoric does matter, and it’s fuel to the fire,” she said.

In response to VOA’s request for comment, Trump’s presidential campaign shared a statement that Republican National Committee spokesperson Taylor Rogers originally provided to the conservative news site the Daily Caller.

In it, Rogers described Trump as a “champion for free speech” and said that “everyone was safer under President Trump, including journalists.”

Mitigating risk

The hostile environment for journalists comes at a time when trust in media is already at a record low in the U.S., according to Gallup. Attacks or hostile rhetoric against the press only make the situation worse.

So far, the Tracker has documented only a few violations directly related to the election. But, McCudden said, “History tells us that we should be worried and aware.”

She cited the January 6 insurrection on the Capitol, where 18 journalists were assaulted.

It may take a few days for the election results to be confirmed, McCudden said. “And in that time, tensions will be high. And journalists whose job it is to cover these tense times are also often in harm’s way,” she said.

The IWMF’s safety training originally was directed at journalists in combat zones and dangerous regions. But following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when attacks on the media began to rise, the IWMF realized U.S. based journalists would benefit from them, too, according to Munoz.

For Jennifer Thomas, a journalism professor at Howard University in Washington, the training offered her the tools to better help her students to stay safe.

“Back when I was reporting locally and then nationally and covering news, we didn’t have to really be that concerned when we went out to cover an event,” said Thomas, who previously worked at CNN. “Well, times have changed.”

During the training, Thomas and the others were introduced to a range of resources on issues including covering riots and dealing with an arrest. Munoz thinks this information will become all the more important for journalists in the U.S. in years to come.
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How Republican-leaning Arizona became a swing state

There are 50 U.S. states, but voters from seven so-called battleground states are expected to determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. The Southwestern state of Arizona used to reliably lean toward Republican candidates. But President Joe Biden, a Democrat, won the state in 2020. And this year, Arizona’s electoral votes are up for grabs again.
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Harris laying out plan to empower Black men, earn their votes 

washington — Vice President Kamala Harris is announcing a plan to give Black men more economic opportunities and other chances to thrive as she works to energize a key voting bloc that has Democrats concerned about a lack of enthusiasm. 

Harris’ plan includes providing forgivable business loans for Black entrepreneurs, creating more apprenticeships, and studying sickle cell and other diseases that disproportionately affect African American men. 

Harris already has said she supports legalizing marijuana, and her plan calls for working to ensure that Black men have opportunities to participate as a “national cannabis industry takes shape.” She is also calling for better regulation of cryptocurrency to protect Black men and others who invest in digital assets. 

The vice president’s “opportunity agenda for Black men” is meant to invigorate African American males at a moment when there are fears some may sit out the election rather than vote for Harris or her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump. 

The vice president unveiled the plan ahead of a Monday visit to Erie, Pennsylvania, where she planned to visit a Black-owned small business and hold a campaign rally. Her push comes after former President Barack Obama suggested last week that some Black men aren’t comfortable with “the idea of having a woman as president.” 

The Harris campaign has also been working to increase support among other male voting blocs, including Hispanics, by founding the group “Hombres con Harris,” Spanish for “Men with Harris.”

The latest policy rollout is notable because it comes with the stated purpose of motivating Black men to vote mere weeks before Election Day. 

As Harris’ team has done with the “Hombres” group, it plans to organize gender-specific gatherings. Those include “Black Men Huddle Up” events in battleground states featuring African American male celebrities for things like professional and college football game watch parties. The campaign says it also plans new testimonial ads in battleground states that feature local Black male voices. 

‘Tools to thrive’

Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris campaign and a former Louisiana congressman who is Black, said Harris wants to build an economy “where Black men are equipped with the tools to thrive: to buy a home, provide for our families, start a business and build wealth.” 

Black Americans strongly supported Joe Biden when he beat Trump in 2020. Harris advisers say they are less worried about losing large percentages of Black male support to the former president than about some of these voters choosing not to turn out at all. 

Trump, too, has stepped up efforts to win over Black and Hispanic voters of both genders. He has held round-tables with Black entrepreneurs in swing states and will sit for a town hall sponsored by Spanish-language Univision this week. He also has repeatedly suggested that immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally are taking jobs from Black and Hispanic Americans. 

The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey data show that as of 2023, native-born Black workers are most predominantly employed in management and financial operations, sales and office support roles, while native-born Latino workers are most often employed in management, office support, sales and service occupations.

Foreign-born, noncitizen Black workers are most often represented in transportation and health care support roles, and foreign-born, noncitizen Hispanic workers are most often represented in construction, building and grounds cleaning.

Harris’ plan 

Harris’ new round of proposals includes a promise that, if elected, she will help distribute 1 million loans of up to $20,000 that can be fully forgivable to Black entrepreneurs and others who have strong ideas to start businesses. The loans would come via new partnerships between the Small Business Administration and community leaders and banks “with a proven commitment to their communities,” her campaign says. 

The vice president also wants to offer federal incentives to encourage more African American men to train to be teachers, citing statistics that Black males made up only a bit more than 1% of the nation’s public school teaching ranks in 2020-21, according to data from the National Teacher and Principal Survey. 

Harris also is pledging to expand existing federal programs that forgive some educational loans for public service to further encourage more Black male teachers. She also wants to use organizations like the National Urban League, local governments and the private sector to expand apprenticeships and credentialing opportunities in Black communities. 

The vice president’s advisers have been urging her to talk more about cryptocurrency to appeal to male voters. Her campaign said that as president, Harris will back a regulatory framework meant to better protect investors in cryptocurrency and other digital assets, which are popular with Black men. 

Harris also promised to create a national initiative to better fund efforts to detect, research and combat sickle cell disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, mental health challenges and other health issues that disproportionately affect Black men. 

A recent poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found about 7 in 10 Black voters had a favorable view of Harris and preferred her leadership to that of Trump on major policy issues including the economy, health care, abortion, immigration, and the war between Israel and Hamas. There was little difference in support for Harris between Black men and Black women.
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Undecided voters could swing US presidential vote

In this last month of U.S. presidential campaigning, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both are trying to reach the relatively small number of voters who say they still have not decided who to support. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns looks at the election’s “undecided.” Vero Balderas contributed.
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Harris, Trump campaigning in battleground Pennsylvania Monday

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will take their fight for Pennsylvania to opposite ends of the state on Monday, with Harris speaking in the northwest corner in Erie and Trump in the southeastern suburbs of Philadelphia.

Democrat Harris and Republican Trump have been making regular appearances in what is the country’s largest battleground state — it will be Harris’ 10th visit to Pennsylvania this campaign season, and just last week Trump made stops in both Scranton and Reading.

Pennsylvania’s energy industry and natural gas fracking are likely topics as they compete for the fraction of the state’s voters who have not made up their minds. Mail-in voting is well underway in the state where some 7 million people are likely to cast votes in the presidential race.

Trump beat Hillary Clinton by more than 40,000 votes in Pennsylvania on his way to winning the presidency in 2016, but native Scrantonian Joe Biden beat Trump by about 80,000 votes in the state four years ago.

Harris will be holding a rally in Erie, a Democratic majority city of about 94,000 people bordered by suburbs and rural areas with significant numbers of Republicans. Erie County is often cited as one of the state’s reliable bellwether regions, where the electorate has a decidedly moderate voting record. Trump visited Erie on Sept. 29.

Harris plans to talk up early voting during her rally. And she’ll stop by a Black-owned small business in Erie in advance of the rally to promote her proposals to give Black men more economic opportunities and other chances to thrive as Democrats try to energize the voting bloc.

Trump plans a town hall Monday at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and Fairgrounds in suburban Oaks, hoping to drive up turnout among his supporters.

Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes, the most of any swing state, have generated the most attention by far from the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns. Including Monday’s scheduled events, they will have made 46 stops in the state, according to Associated Press tracking of the campaigns’ public events.

Michigan, with 33 visits, and Wisconsin, with 29, are the next most-visited states, illustrating how both campaigns are focusing on winning states that had been part of the Democrats’ so-called “blue wall” until Trump emerged as the Republican standard-bearer.

Democrats have won three straight elections for governor, and both current U.S. senators are Democrats, but the state’s legislature is closely divided.
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What is ‘gerrymandering’ and how does it work?

Many U.S. politicians throughout history owe their success to the drawing of boundary lines on a map that made their election a near certainty. Here is how it worked and continues to work to this day.
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More relief for hurricane victims under way as campaigns spar over misinformation

On Sunday, President Joe Biden visited areas affected by Hurricane Milton in Florida and announced a half-billion dollars in new funding to improve electric grid resilience. But even as relief and recovery efforts continue, officials warn that misinformation is spreading rapidly as Election Day draws near. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details, with reporting from Patrick Bresnan in North Carolina.
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Harris’ doctor reports she’s in ‘excellent health’

WASHINGTON — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president, her doctor said in a letter released Saturday that summarizes her medical history and status.

Dr. Joshua Simmons, a U.S. Army colonel and physician to the vice president, wrote that Harris, 59, maintains a healthy, active lifestyle and that her most recent physical, in April, was “unremarkable.”

She “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” he wrote in a two-page letter.

Harris’ campaign hopes to use the moment to draw a contrast with Republican Donald Trump, who has released only limited information about his health over the years, and raise questions about his fitness to serve, according to a campaign aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Trump has released very little health information, including after his ear was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt in July.

Simmons, who said he has been Harris’ primary care physician for the past 3½ years, said the vice president has a history of allergies and urticaria, also known as hives, for which she has been on allergen immunotherapy for the past three years.

Simmons said Harris’ latest blood work and other test results were “unremarkable.”

Also in the report: Harris wears contact lenses for mild nearsightedness; her family history includes maternal colon cancer; she is up to date on preventive care recommendations, including having a colonoscopy and annual mammograms.

As Harris’ office released the medical report, her campaign highlighted recent media reports raising questions about Trump’s health and mental acuity and his failure to provide information about health status and medical history.

Trump, 78, eagerly questioned President Joe Biden’s health when the 81-year-old president was seeking reelection. Since Biden was replaced on the ticket with Harris, Trump’s own health has drawn more attention.

Last November, Trump marked Biden’s birthday by releasing a letter from his physician that reported the former president was in “excellent” physical and mental health.

The letter, posted on Trump’s social media platform, contained no details to support its claims — measures such as weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any test.
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Election stress disorder is a real thing ahead of November voting

The American Psychiatric Association says that as elections approach, stress levels go up, regardless of political affiliation. The constant stream of news, stressful arguments and concerns about the country’s future all put pressure on mental well-being. Some psychologists call it election stress disorder. Maxim Adams has the story. Videographer: Andre Sergunin
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US voting systems, targets of conspiracy theories, get tested for accuracy, security

ATLANTA — Voting machines have been at the center of a web of conspiracy theories after the 2020 election, with false claims that they were manipulated to steal the presidency from Donald Trump.

There was no evidence of widespread fraud or rigged voting machines in the election, and multiple reviews in the battleground states where the Republican president disputed his loss to Democrat Joe Biden confirmed the results as accurate. In 2023, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems, one of the largest voting machine companies, $787 million to avoid a trial in a defamation lawsuit.

In the years since his loss, Trump and his allies have continued to sow doubts about voting equipment. State and local election officials have tried to push back by explaining the layers of protection that surround voting systems and the measures they have in place to conduct fair and accurate elections.

In November’s presidential election, nearly every ballot cast will have a paper record that can be used to obtain an accurate count even if there are errors or cyberattacks.

What is a voting machine?

Election officials rely on various pieces of technology. Every office does things a little bit differently.

Officials rely on a voter registration system that is a database of registered voters and have an election management system that workers use to create, issue and track ballots. They also use an election-night reporting system that reports unofficial results. Many jurisdictions use electronic pollbooks to check in voters at polling locations.

All this depends on software and computers, a reliance that carries risks that officials work to identify and address. For example, election officials often will isolate critical systems from the internet and use storage devices, such as secured USB sticks, to transfer data. They limit access to sensitive equipment to only those who need it and have logs that track and monitor the devices.

When an internet connection is needed, election officials will often use private networks to limit the risk of malicious activity and take other steps to scan their systems for potential vulnerabilities and threats.

Voters in much of the country fill out ballots by hand, and then that ballot will be scanned and counted electronically. A few places, mostly small towns in the Northeast, will count their ballots by hand.

In some areas, voters use a computer to mark their ballots electronically and then get a printout of their choices that they insert into a scanner for counting. In other cases, the ballot is cast electronically, and a paper record is printed that summarizes the votes cast. That record is then available if a hand-count is needed.

Are voting machines connected to the internet?

With a few exceptions, no. There are some jurisdictions in a few states that allow for ballot scanners in polling locations to transmit unofficial results, using a mobile private network, after voting has ended on Election Day and the memory cards containing the vote tallies have been removed.

Election officials who allow this say it provides for faster reporting of unofficial election results on election night. They say the paper records of the ballots cast are used to authenticate the results during postelection reviews, and that those records would be crucial to a recount if one was needed.

Computer security experts have said this is an unnecessary risk and should be prohibited.

Are voting machines secure?

Election officials say they have worked extensively to shore up security around their voting equipment after an effort by Russia to scan state voter registration systems for vulnerabilities in 2016.

There was no evidence then that any data was changed or deleted, but it led the federal government to declare the nation’s election systems as critical infrastructure. That allows the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to provide free cybersecurity reviews and vulnerability testing to election offices nationwide.

“Today, eight years later, because of all the incredible work by election officials to strengthen the security and resiliency of our election process, election infrastructure has never been more secure, and the election stakeholder community has never been stronger,” the agency’s director, Jen Easterly, told reporters in September.

Computer security experts have called for more to be done and for election officials to limit the use of certain technology, specifically machines that mark ballots for voters. A long-running court battle in Georgia has sought to compel the state to get rid of these machines in favor of hand-marked paper ballots.

Experts have also raised particular concern about a series of security breaches that occurred after the 2020 election as Trump allies sought access to voting systems in Georgia and elsewhere as they tried to prove their unsubstantiated claims. The experts have warned that the public release of critical election software because of the breaches has raised “serious threats” and have called for a federal investigation.

How do election officials ensure accuracy?

Election officials say there are safeguards in place to ensure that voting systems are not manipulated. That begins with physical security, such as locked rooms with limited access and the use of tamper-evident seals. In addition, voting equipment is tested before the election, a process that includes running test ballots through the equipment to ensure votes are being counted correctly.

Postelection reviews are conducted to identify any mistakes or errors that may have occurred.

Around 98% of all ballots cast in this year’s election will include a paper record, according to a report by the Brennan Center for Justice based on data collected by Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that tracks voting equipment in the U.S. Officials say that’s important for ensuring that any error or cyberattack will not prevent officials from producing an accurate record of the vote.
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