With Election Day just five days away, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said on Thursday that while he’s “cautiously optimistic” about the election, Americans need to “buckle up” for disinformation and misinformation spreading this week.
“What I am obsessed about is … what can and probably will be happening in terms of disinformation and misinformation,” Sen. Warner said during an Oct. 31 conversation with Punchbowl News.
As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the senator said he will participate in the last election “pre-meeting” in terms of “outside influence” with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), FBI, and the National Security Agency.
“I think from about Sunday night through election night, and then, frankly, the 72 to 96 hours after the election, I think we all have to buckle up,” Sen. Warner warned.
The senator pointed to recent reports that a Chinese hacking group known as Salt Typhoon gained unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure to target former President Donald Trump; his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio; and associates of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The FBI and CISA issued a statement last Friday saying they were investigating the matter. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) said on Monday that it will launch an investigation into the China-sponsored infiltrations.
“I think we will see that Salt Typhoon is one of the biggest breaches potentially ever. But I don’t think it was in any way geared towards the election,” Sen. Warner said. “I mean, the cyber activities of our adversaries, they get better all the time.”
Sen. Warner said he has talked with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, about how, after the election, “we really need a rethink on policy around offensive use of cyber, how we think about we go after our adversaries.”
“I think most people presume that we have the ability to go tit for tat with our adversaries as they penetrate some of our networks,” Sen. Warner said. “I’m not going to, obviously, get into what our capabilities are, but we have more constraints on what we do based upon our view of what’s a little bit, you know, off limits.”
The senator stressed that his overarching goal with the committee is “to redefine national security, so it’s not just tanks and guns and chips and planes, but it is technology competition.”
