FBI and CISA Warn Election Officials and Campaigns of AI-Powered Election Phishing and Text Scams Ahead of 2026 Midterms
The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint public service announcement Friday warning election officials, candidates, campaigns and the public that cyber actors may use convincing emails, text messages and AI-generated audio and video to steal logins and sensitive data, or plant malware, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“Malicious cyber actors may attempt to disrupt the 2026 U.S. midterm elections using phishing and smishing techniques to steal user data, including login credentials and sensitive information,” the announcement, alert number I-101626-PSA, says.
The alert was posted Oct. 16, 18 days before the Nov. 3 general election.
WHY ELECTION OFFICIALS ARE ELECTION PHISHING TARGETS
According to the announcement, “Election officials, candidates, and their political organizations are attractive targets to malicious cyber criminals due to their access to voter registration data, current government officials, or sensitive campaign information.”
The agencies say phishing emails and smishing, the same trick by text message, have been used against election workers before. “During the last two election cycles, election officials experienced a surge of phishing attempts and within the last year, the FBI saw an increase of smishing attempts through encrypted chat applications,” the alert says.
CISA’s summary of the alert says the efforts “may include convincing emails, text messages, audio, and video content designed to manipulate recipients into disclosing sensitive information or interacting with malicious links and attachments.”
THE ‘SUPER INTELLIGENCE’ WARNING
The announcement says artificial intelligence, which it calls “super intelligence (SI),” is making scam messages harder to spot. Reuters, which reported the alert Friday, described “super intelligence” as “a Trump-approved term for AI.”
“Historically, phishing emails were recognizable due to spelling errors, illogical vocabulary, and poor grammar,” the alert says. “SI allows malicious cyber actors to create language that appears genuine, using native languages and common vernacular, making it more likely for potential victims to click malicious links or inadvertently expose information through direct interaction with threat actors.”
The agencies also warn about deepfakes. “Cyber threat actors use these deepfakes to create new identities, steal the identities of real people, create realistic facsimiles of daily life and communication, and bolster phishing schemes,” the announcement says. It adds that “SI serves as an evolutionary step by allowing malicious cyber actors to carry out sophisticated operations quicker and at a greater scale.”
WHAT THE FBI AND CISA RECOMMEND
The agencies “urge election officials and the American public to critically evaluate the sources of their emails and mobile messages.”
For individuals, the alert recommends phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication “for all services to the extent possible, particularly for email, virtual private networks, and accounts that access critical systems.” It also advises: “Examine potentially malicious content for content credentials or watermarking indicating that it was SI-generated.”
For organizations such as election offices and campaigns, the list includes:
Up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware software and phishing-resistant MFA.
Training employees to spot phishing and smishing and to confirm requests for sensitive information “through secondary channels.”
A process for sending suspicious emails to IT staff, and a warning not to open attachments from unknown senders.
Banners that mark emails from outside the organization, plus strong spam filters that block emails containing executable files.
Strong, unique passphrases for every account with a password login, and mandatory passphrase changes if there is evidence of a compromise.
Prompt software updates. “Timely patching is one of the most efficient and cost-effective steps an organization can take to minimize its exposure to cybersecurity threats,” the alert says.
The Sender Policy Framework and DomainKeys Identified Mail standards to limit spoofing of an organization’s email domain, and “role-based, least privileged access” for staff.
WHO HANDLES WHAT
The announcement says the FBI “is responsible for investigating and prosecuting election crimes, specific to foreign influence and interference operations targeting election infrastructure and other U.S. democratic institutions,” while CISA helps critical infrastructure owners and operators, “including those in the election community, remain resilient against physical and cyber threats.”
The alert does not name any specific foreign government or criminal group, and it does not say any 2026 election system has been breached.
The FBI asks victims to report suspicious activity to a local FBI field office or to its Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
The warning came a day after the FBI issued a separate alert, “Scammers Exploit 2026 U.S. Midterm Election to Perpetrate Multiple Fraud Schemes,” which describes fake campaign investment pools, sham political action committees, political merchandise that never ships, and texts or emails that falsely tell people they are not registered to vote and link to fake registration pages.
Sources: FBI and CISA public service announcement, “Cyber Threat Actors Use a Variety of Techniques to Target Election and Campaign Officials,” alert number I-101626-PSA (Oct. 16, 2026): https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2026/PSA261016 | CISA summary of the alert (Oct. 16, 2026): https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/cyber-threat-actors-use-variety-techniques-target-election-and-campaign-officials | FBI public service announcement, “Scammers Exploit 2026 U.S. Midterm Election to Perpetrate Multiple Fraud Schemes,” alert number I-101526-3-PSA (Oct. 15, 2026): https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2026/PSA261015-3 | Reuters (Oct. 16, 2026): https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-tells-election-officials-be-guard-against-ai-powered-tricks-ahead-midterms-2026-10-16/
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