WASHINGTON (AP) — A presidential candidate the phone is broken. A fake the video falsely shows the burned ballots in Pennsylvania. National security officials warn that America’s adversaries may incite violent protests after Election Day.

These developments — all revealed in the past week — show how Russia, China and Iran have stepped up efforts to meddle in American politics ahead of next month’s election, as intelligence officials and security analysts anticipated.

At the same time, officials technology companies and private researchers adopted a more aggressive defense, quickly exposing foreign electoral threats, highlighting the lessons learned from past election cycles that have exposed America’s vulnerability to disinformation and cyber espionage.

officials say the US electoral system is so secure that no foreign nation could alter the results on a scale necessary to change the outcome. However, authoritarian adversaries have harnessed disinformation and cyber espionage to target campaigns and voters while fueling mistrust and discord.

Here’s what you need to know as the presidential election approaches:

Russia is the biggest threat

Russia is the most active and sophisticated nation working to manipulate the US election, using fake websitesstate-controlled media and unwitting Americans to spread misleading and polarizing content designed to undermine confidence in elections.

The Kremlin’s disinformation apparatus deals with controversial issues such as immigrationcrime, its economy disaster relief. The goal is to weaken the US, erode support for Ukraine as it fights Russian invaders, and reduce America’s ability to counter Russia’s growing ties to China, north korea and IRANofficials said.

Intelligence officials and private security analysts have determined that Russia supports former President Donald Trumpand uses disinformation — sometimes generated by AI — to smear his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested cutting off funds for Ukraine criticized the NATO military alliance.

In a particularly bold campaign, Russia put together a video that falsely accused Harris of paralyzing a woman in a car accident years ago. Another video made fictitious accusations against Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

On Friday, the FBI confirmed Moscow’s role in creating a the third video purportedly showing the destruction of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania. Local election officials quickly debunked the video as fake.

so does Russia tried to pay American influence which spread the Kremlin’s preferred narratives. Last month, US authorities charged two employees of the Russian state media to funnel $10 million to a Tennessee company to create pro-Russian content. The company then paid several popular right-wing influencers who said they did it he had no idea that their work was supported by Russia.

The Moscow campaign it will not end on election day. Instead, intelligence officials and private security analysts predict that Russia will exploit claims of election irregularities to suggest that the results cannot be trusted. A recently declassified intelligence memo said Russia may also encourage violent protests after the election.

“Putin’s goal is to foster chaos, division and polarization in our society,” said Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia who now teaches at Stanford University.

Russia has denied claims it tried to influence the US election. A message left with the Russian embassy in Washington was not immediately returned Saturday.

Iranian hack-and-leak operations

Iran was a particularly innocent player in foreign interference this year.

Its accused of hacking Trump campaign associates and providing stolen communications to media organizations and Democrats in hopes that damaging stories would emerge that could hurt the Republican’s prospects. Emails that hang dirt were sent to people associated with President Joe Biden’s campaign, but there is no indication that anyone has responded, officials said.

Department of Justice last month accused three Iranian hackers who remain at large, accusing them of a years-long operation targeting a wide range of victims.

US officials described the attack as part of a larger effort to interfere in an election that Iran perceives as particularly important. Iran, they say, has made clear its opposition to Trump’s campaign. His administration concluded a nuclear deal with Iranreimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimanian act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

In addition to cyber operations, US officials have repeatedly raised concerns about Iran’s potential to carry out violence on US soil against Trump or other members of his administration. Officials brought charges in 2022 in a foiled Iranian plot kill Trump’s national security adviserJohn Bolton, and this year charged a Pakistani with ties to Iran in a plot to carry out political assassinations in the US, including potentially Trump.

Leaders in Tehran may also seek to encourage violent protests after the election, according to the declassified intelligence memo. Authorities say Iran also covertly funded and supported US protests for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Iranian authorities have rejected accusations that the country is trying to influence the election. Iran’s mission to the United Nations released a statement this week saying, “Iran has no motive or intention to interfere in the U.S. election.”

A neutral China?

US intelligence officials believe China is taking a more neutral attitude in the elections and it is focused on downvote racestargeting candidates of both parties based on their positions on issues of key importance to Beijing, including support for Taiwan.

But the Chinese government has for years run a sophisticated hacking operation targeting all kinds of Western life and industry that goes far beyond electoral influence.

“From the city council to the president, they want access,” said Adam Darrah, a former CIA political analyst who is now vice president of intelligence at cybersecurity firm ZeroFox, which tracks foreign threats online.

Friday, news broke that Chinese hackers as part of a much larger spying effort, it targeted cell phones used by Trump, his running mate JD Vance and people associated with the Harris campaign. It was not immediately clear what data, if any, was accessed.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said they were not familiar with the details and could not comment, but maintained that China is routinely victimized by cyber attacks and opposes the activity.

Are these tactics new?

Hard. Foreign adversaries, including the same ones now accused of meddling, have sought to interfere in the past several election cycles — with varying degrees of success.

But the US government, accused of relying on intelligence about the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 election, has worked this year to aggressively flag foreign threats as part of an effort to reduce their impact and reassure Americans that the election is safe. .

In 2016, Russian military intelligence officers hacked into email accounts of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and the Democratic Party and released tens of thousands of communications in an effort to boost Trump’s successful presidential campaign.

Russia also engaged in a that year huge but hidden social media trolling campaign intended to sow discord on hot-button social issues, creating division in the American electoral process and damaging Clinton’s bid for president.

The trouble continued into the 2020 election cycle, when a Ukrainian lawmaker described at the time by U.S. officials as an “active Russian agent ” released audio recordings of Democrat Joe Biden, then running for president.

In the same year, Iranian hackers were blamed for the emails purported to be from the far-right group The Proud Boys that officials said were designed to damage Trump’s candidacy.