While they might hinder access to information, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against election infrastructure won’t prevent voting, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in an alert issued this week.
DDoS attacks would either slow down election-related public-facing websites or render them inaccessible, thus preventing voters from staying updated with voting information or from accessing voting results.
Such attacks are meant to disrupt activities for a period of time through flooding Internet-accessible servers with requests and preventing legitimate users from connecting to online resources, such as online accounts or websites.
“The public should be aware that if foreign actors or cyber criminals were able to successfully conduct DDoS attacks against election infrastructure, the underlying data and internal systems would remain uncompromised, and anyone eligible to vote would still be able to cast a ballot,” the FBI and CISA note.
Furthermore, the two agencies warn that threat actors might falsely claim that they successfully compromised voting systems through DDoS attacks and that they were able to prevent voters from casting their ballots or that they managed to modify already-cast votes.
Such disinformation attempts, the two agencies say, would undermine the public’s trust in the country’s democratic institutions and seek to discredit the electoral process. Two other similar alerts issued over the past couple of weeks warn of disinformation regarding the security of voting systems and the validity of election results.
“The FBI and CISA have no reporting to suggest a DDoS attack has ever prevented a registered voter from casting a ballot, or compromised the integrity of any ballots cast,” the alert reads.
The agencies also note that they’ve worked closely with election officials to identify additional channels through which they could keep voters informed, including traditional media, verified social media accounts, and other resources.
“Election officials have multiple safeguards and plans in place to limit the impact and recover from a DDoS incident with minimal disruption to the voting process,” the agencies say.
Citizens are advised to get informed on vote procedures and polling places ahead of election day, to make sure that information comes from trustworthy sources only, and to only rely on state and local government election officials when it comes to details on how to vote, on polling locations, and on final election results.
Related: FBI, CISA Warn of Disinformation Campaigns Regarding Hacked Voting Systems
Related: FBI, CISA Warn of Disinformation Campaigns Targeting 2020 Election Results
Related: Security of Post-Election Vote Count Top Worry: US Official

More from Ionut Arghire
- Millions Stolen in Hack at Cryptocurrency ATM Manufacturer General Bytes
- NBA Notifying Individuals of Data Breach at Mailing Services Provider
- Adobe Acrobat Sign Abused to Distribute Malware
- Latitude Financial Services Data Breach Impacts 300,000 Customers
- US Government Warns Organizations of LockBit 3.0 Ransomware Attacks
- New ‘Trigona’ Ransomware Targets US, Europe, Australia
- New Espionage Group ‘YoroTrooper’ Targeting Entities in European, CIS Countries
- CISA Seeks Public Opinion on Cloud Application Security Guidance
Latest News
- Aembit Scores $16.6M Seed Funding for Workload IAM Technology
- Millions Stolen in Hack at Cryptocurrency ATM Manufacturer General Bytes
- Waterfall Security, TXOne Networks Launch New OT Security Appliances
- Hitachi Energy Blames Data Breach on Zero-Day as Ransomware Gang Threatens Firm
- NBA Notifying Individuals of Data Breach at Mailing Services Provider
- Adobe Acrobat Sign Abused to Distribute Malware
- New York Man Arrested for Running BreachForums Cybercrime Website
- Huawei Has Replaced Thousands of US-Banned Parts With Chinese Versions: Founder
