Protect Yourself and Your Staff

Swatting is a term used to describe criminal activity by an individual or group who knowingly provides false information to law enforcement suggesting that a serious threat exists at a particular location so that law enforcement respond with tactical units, or what’s commonly known as a SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team. This dangerous tactic places the targeted individual or location and law enforcement at risk and pulls critical first responder resources away from actual emergencies.

Use these resources to mitigate against swatting:

• Swatting Prevention and Response Guidance for Election Workers and Law Enforcement - This guidance document provides an overview of swatting and recommended practices for preventing and responding to swatting incidents for both election workers as well as law enforcement. 

The internet-based practice of gathering an individual’s personally identifiable information (PII)—or an organization’s sensitive information— from open source or compromised material and publishing it online for malicious purposes.

Use these resources to mitigate against doxing:

• CISA Insights: Mitigating the Impacts of Doxing on Critical Infrastructure - This CISA Insights provides information, guidance, and resources to critical infrastructure owners and operators, security professionals, and the general public.
• The Personal Security Considerations Action Guide: Critical Infrastructure Workers - This guide helps critical infrastructure workers assess their security posture and provide options to consider whether they are on or off the job. It provides actionable recommendations and resources intended to prevent and mitigate threats to a critical infrastructure worker’s personal safety.

Foreign actors use a variety of tactics to conduct influence operations, often to foster confusion and division, and sometimes even incite harm. Foreign influence operations can undermine our nation's critical infrastructure security, to include election infrastructure security. Understanding these tactics can increase our security preparedness and augment our security resilience.

Use these resources to mitigate against Foreign Influence Operations:

• Just So You Know: Foreign Threat Actors Likely to Use a Variety of Tactics to Develop and Spread Disinformation During 2024 U.S. General Election Cycle:  The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are issuing this public service announcement (PSA) to raise awareness of the efforts posed by foreign threat actors to spread disinformation in the lead up to, and likely in the days following, the 2024 U.S. general election.
• FBI and CISA Release Joint PSA, Just So You Know: False Claims of Hacked Voter Information Likely Intended to Sow Distrust of U.S. Elections: This PSA raises awareness of attempts to undermine public confidence in the security of U.S. election infrastructure through the spread of disinformation falsely claiming that cyberattacks compromised U.S. voter registration databases.
• Securing Election Infrastructure Against the Tactics of Foreign Malign Influence Operations: This guide offers actionable steps to combat the evolving tactics of foreign malign influence operations.
• Risk in Focus: Generative A.I. and the 2024 Election Cycle: This fact sheet provides an overview of generative AI-enabled capabilities relevant to election security, how these capabilities can be used by malicious actors to target the security and integrity of election infrastructure, and basic mitigations to counter these enhanced risks from generative AI-enabled capabilities.
•  Contextualizing Deepfake Threats to Organizations:  A Cybersecurity Information Sheet developed by CISA, the National Security Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation which provides an overview of synthetic media threats, techniques, and trends.
• Tactics of Disinformation – Provides an overview of eight common tactics employed in foreign influence operations and actions individuals can take to increase resilience to these threating behaviors.
• CISA Insights – Preparing for and Mitigating Foreign Influence Operations Targeting Critical Infrastructure - This CISA Insights makes critical infrastructure owners and operators aware of the risks of influence operations leveraging social media and online platforms. Organizations can take steps to ensure swift information sharing.

Election officials remain concerned about the potential for violence targeting themselves, election workers, and election infrastructure. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment election cycle highlighted the possibility of actors disrupting election processes or directing violence or threats toward election infrastructure and personnel.

Use these resources to mitigate against physical acts of violence:

• The Personal Security Considerations Action Guide: Critical Infrastructure Workers - This guide helps critical infrastructure workers assess their security posture and provide options to consider whether they are on or off the job. It provides actionable recommendations and resources intended to prevent and mitigate threats to a critical infrastructure worker’s personal safety.
• Non-confrontational Techniques for Election Workers Training - A video to empower poll workers and election officials to safely navigate potentially escalating situations at election facilities and polling locations.
• Federal Election Crimes: The FBI's Role in Protecting Your Vote - This flyer provides additional information about the FBI’s support to the election community for election-related crimes, to include information on the Election Threats Task Force.