An organization that tracks election threats for state and local officials said Tuesday afternoon that it had seen limited threat activity during the midterms, though a handful of incidents that briefly disrupted voting and equipment problems in some states have fueled unfounded claims of fraud.
Most cases have been resolved quickly, the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center said in a 3 p.m. EST update.
“The midterm elections are a massive undertaking. Each cycle, some jurisdictions experience challenges and rely on layered safeguards to protect the accuracy of results,” said Geoff Hale, an election security visiting fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
“This election cycle, the incidents we’re hearing reports of aren’t significantly different than those in previous years. So far, we have not seen evidence of significant cyber incidents,” added…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.