CyberScoop reports that Russia has already begun refocusing its election interference efforts on the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz beginning in late August.
Influence operations by Russian threat groups Storm-1516 and Storm-1679, which previously targeted the Paris Olympic Games, involved the dissemination of fake videos — one of which showed alleged Harris supporters attacking an attendee of a Trump rally and another depicting a phony billboard in New York City containing fraudulent claims regarding the policies of Harris — on X, formerly Twitter, as well as a hoax San Francisco news site, according to a report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center.
Similar activity has also been conducted by the Ruza Flood operation, said the report, which noted mounting interference by Russia as the election nears.
Such a development comes weeks after the U.S. moved to aggressively clamp down on foreign influence efforts against the presidential polls with sanctions and domain seizures. "However, we have also observed actors attempting to create new infrastructure, with one threat actor already having moved media outlets from seized websites to new ones," said Microsoft Threat Analysis Center General Manager Clint Watts.
