ZeroFox Intelligence Brief - Cyber Threats to UK Elections

Product Serial: B-2024-06-25a

TLP:CLEAR

In this Intelligence Brief, ZeroFox geopolitical researchers analyze the UK's upcoming general election, including potential cyber security risks and disinformation campaigns.

Standing Intelligence Requirements

Geopolitical and Physical GEO

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Executive Summary

When the United Kingdom (UK) holds its general election on July 4, 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party is very likely to lose its majority to the main opposition: the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer. Recent polling indicates that, should Labour win, the Conservatives may not even be the largest opposition party, with the upstart Reform UK party threatening to further reduce its share of voters. Nevertheless, Conservatives will be campaigning in an attempt to prevent the loss of seats, while Labour will primarily be campaigning to win as many seats as possible to avoid the need to form a coalition with other parties. The 2024 UK elections are also taking place during a period of massive weaponization of cyberspace for covert, as well as overt, digital influence and intimidation campaigns. Many of the cyber instances ZeroFox discovered (including the propagation of deepfakes, tactical disclosure of “technically legitimate” half-truths in malinformation campaigns, and stealthy-yet-mass-scale disinformation campaigns) are at least partially designed to influence voter behavior to narrow the margin of a Labour victory or a Conservative defeat. ZeroFox discovered geopolitical and financially motivated data breaches and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks conducted by so-called “hacktivists'' tied to the election as well.