Ex-White House election threat hunter weighs in on what to expect in November

Interview Mick Baccio, global security advisor at Splunk, has watched the evolution of election security threats in real time.

While working for the Obama Administration, Baccio led the threat intelligence team for the 2016 presidential election, and later served as campaign CISO for US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for his 2020 White House race.

We caught up with Baccio recently to talk about what he expects to see in the lead up to the November 2024 US elections in an interview you can watch below.

"In 2016, there was an email account that was compromised. There was a network that was compromised," he said. "In 2020, you saw a lot more division and influence operations. We've seen the amplification of that in 2024. And obviously, AI is going to play a factor in this year's election whether we want it to or not."

In fact, Hillary Clinton has already declared 2024 "ground zero" for AI election manipulation. But more on that later.

Elections, especially campaigns, provide a boon to financially motivated cybercriminals. And these money-grabbing crooks, according to Baccio, pose a huge threat to candidates and their campaigns. "The speed at which campaigns move cannot be underestimated, and the goal of cyber criminals is to try and siphon some of that money," he told The Register.

But what about the elephant in the (election) room, aka AI, and how crime gangs and nation-state crews alike may attempt to abuse this tech to manipulate the November election? Watch to find out. ®