FBI and CISA warn election officials of phishing and smishing

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published a public service announcement on the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) site on 16 October 2026 about the cyber threats facing election and campaign officials before the 2026 US midterm elections. It says election officials, candidates and their political organizations are attractive targets because of their access to voter registration data, government officials or sensitive campaign information.

The agencies note that election officials saw a surge of phishing attempts during the last two election cycles, and that within the last year the FBI saw more smishing attempts through encrypted chat applications. The announcement links part of the change to what it calls super intelligence (SI): phishing messages written in natural, native language, and deepfake video and audio used to create new identities or steal real ones.

Its recommendations include phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication for email, virtual private networks and accounts that reach critical systems, banners on external emails, the SPF and DKIM email standards against spoofing, and confirming requests for sensitive information through a second channel.

Why it matters The warning reaches well beyond election offices. Fluent language and synthetic voices remove the cues that awareness programs have long relied on, so second-channel verification and phishing-resistant authentication now carry more weight than a trained eye, for any organization holding data an adversary wants.