Cyber Threats to Canadian Federal Election: Emerging Threats, Assessment, and Mitigation Strategies

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Islam, Nazmul, Kim, Soomin, Pirooz, Mohammad, Shvetsov, Sasha
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Islam, Nazmul
Kim, Soomin
Pirooz, Mohammad
Shvetsov, Sasha
author_facet Islam, Nazmul
Kim, Soomin
Pirooz, Mohammad
Shvetsov, Sasha
contents As Canada prepares for the 2025 federal election, ensuring the integrity and security of the electoral process against cyber threats is crucial. Recent foreign interference in elections globally highlight the increasing sophistication of adversaries in exploiting technical and human vulnerabilities. Such vulnerabilities also exist in Canada's electoral system that relies on a complex network of IT systems, vendors, and personnel. To mitigate these vulnerabilities, a threat assessment is crucial to identify emerging threats, develop incident response capabilities, and build public trust and resilience against cyber threats. Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive national cyber threat assessment, following the NIST Special Publication 800-30 framework, focusing on identifying and mitigating cybersecurity risks to the upcoming 2025 Canadian federal election. The research identifies three major threats: misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (MDM) campaigns; attacks on critical infrastructure and election support systems; and espionage by malicious actors. Through detailed analysis, the assessment offers insights into the capabilities, intent, and potential impact of these threats. The paper also discusses emerging technologies and their influence on election security and proposes a multi-faceted approach to risk mitigation ahead of the election.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_05560
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cyber Threats to Canadian Federal Election: Emerging Threats, Assessment, and Mitigation Strategies
Islam, Nazmul
Kim, Soomin
Pirooz, Mohammad
Shvetsov, Sasha
Cryptography and Security
As Canada prepares for the 2025 federal election, ensuring the integrity and security of the electoral process against cyber threats is crucial. Recent foreign interference in elections globally highlight the increasing sophistication of adversaries in exploiting technical and human vulnerabilities. Such vulnerabilities also exist in Canada's electoral system that relies on a complex network of IT systems, vendors, and personnel. To mitigate these vulnerabilities, a threat assessment is crucial to identify emerging threats, develop incident response capabilities, and build public trust and resilience against cyber threats. Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive national cyber threat assessment, following the NIST Special Publication 800-30 framework, focusing on identifying and mitigating cybersecurity risks to the upcoming 2025 Canadian federal election. The research identifies three major threats: misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (MDM) campaigns; attacks on critical infrastructure and election support systems; and espionage by malicious actors. Through detailed analysis, the assessment offers insights into the capabilities, intent, and potential impact of these threats. The paper also discusses emerging technologies and their influence on election security and proposes a multi-faceted approach to risk mitigation ahead of the election.
title Cyber Threats to Canadian Federal Election: Emerging Threats, Assessment, and Mitigation Strategies
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.05560