The 11th edition of the Threat Landscape report by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) highlights the risks posed by AI-enabled information manipulation in the upcoming EU elections.
The report recorded approximately 2580 incidents during the reporting period, with 220 incidents specifically targeting two or more EU Member States.
The sectors mostly targeted include public administrations (19%) and health (8%), with a cascading effect observed due to interdependencies.
Information manipulation campaigns are considered a major threat to election processes, with individuals (47%) and public administration (29%) being the primary targets.
The report also provides an overview of evolving trends in threat actors, including state-nexus actors targeting key individuals through spear phishing and social networks.
Ransomware and DDoS attacks remain the top threats, accounting for 34% and 28% of all threats, respectively.
The motivations behind these threats include financial gain, disruption, espionage, destruction, and ideology.
The report highlights the potential misuse of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots in phishing attempts, information manipulation, and cybercrime.
Older techniques like search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning and malvertising have also seen a resurgence among cybercrime actors.
The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing vulnerabilities and ensuring cybersecure infrastructures for the integrity and availability of information in the EU electoral process.
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