Hackers are already preparing for the midterm elections this fall, with heightened cyber threats building throughout the political spectrum, according to a new report.
Check Point, a cybersecurity firm, found in the June 1 report that the midterm cycle “is expected to drive elevated cyber threat activity across the broader election ecosystem, including political organizations, fundraising and media platforms, government services, campaign personnel, and the providers that support them.”
Although current intelligence does not indicate widespread attacks on voting systems and vote counting, the report said, it does show potentially significant compromise of election-related infrastructure such as fundraising platforms, websites, and media channels.
Hackers are most likely to favor operations that are “inexpensive, scalable, and capable of producing outsized political or psychological impact,” according to the report. The report also said foreign interference from Russia, Iran, and China remains part of the cyber threat landscape.
The 2026 midterm elections will determine control of the 120th Congress beginning next January, with all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats on the ballot in November.
The Check Point report cited phishing as the most persistent election-related threat but focused on how AI-generated content “is already shaping the 2026 election threat landscape” because it “lowers production costs, accelerates content creation, improves impersonation quality, and enables influence activity to scale more rapidly than in previous election cycles.”
The report referenced a recent Reuters article that pointed to an increase in “deepfake” political advertisements ahead of the midterms, “taking advantage of AI tools that are improving at a breakneck pace.”
One example: an AI-generated ad from the National Republican ?Senatorial Committee (NRSC), featuring a computer-altered version of Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico reciting his past social media posts.
Among Democrats, the article singled out California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, who has frequently used AI-generated videos to troll President Donald Trump.
To guard against potential cyber threats, the report recommended steps such as treating email, public websites, donation systems, and administrative portals as priority assets; requiring phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication for high-trust accounts; and tightening email security controls.
The report comes as U.S. cyber defenses could be in question. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a top Democrat on a Senate intelligence panel, recently warned that election security cuts at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency mean that the agency is no longer providing the same election security support to state and local governments as it did in recent elections.