Over 5,000 malicious domains targeting 2026 US Midterm elections spotted going live – and they could be used for fraud, phishing, or worse - TechRadar

(Image credit: Pexels) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Subscribe to our newsletter Check Point Research warns Russia and other nation‑states are running large‑scale disinformation campaigns ahead of the US midterms Operations include phishing sites, fake donation portals, and Doppelganger clones of major outlets Midterm elections are scheduled for November this year Russia (and probably other nation-states, as well) is actively trying to influence US Midterm elections scheduled to take place in November this year. This is according to a new report from cybersecurity researchers Check Point Research, who said they saw more than 5,000 election-themed websites pop up since January this year. “In this new era of AI-powered disinformation, the goal is often not to change vote counts directly, but to convince voters that truth itself is difficult to verify,” the researchers said. In other words, these hackers are not targeting the machines that count the votes, but rather humans casting them, influencing them and thus changing the outcome of the elections. This is hardly a new thing, and we’ve seen US government officials accusing Putin of meddling with US presidential elections before. Latest Videos From Watch full video here: Doppelganger This time, however, Check Point found concrete evidence, as well as a detailed modus operandi of these operations. In January, the researchers found 1,300 domains containing the word “election” and almost 3,000 with the word “vote”. Between mid-April and mid-May, “election” held steady at around 1,140, while “vote” spiked to 4,010. “The volume is increasing as November approaches, and the mix is shifting toward the more voter-facing term,” it was explained. While domain registration volume alone does not automatically mean malicious intent, security teams know that the domains are usually used for phishing pages impersonating information portals, fake donation collection sites, candidate impersonation, and misinformation distribution campaigns. Check Point also said that it saw a Russian operation called Doppelganger cloning high-authority news sites (Reuters, The Washington Post, Fox News, and similar) and publishing fake news there, hoping other outlets would pick up and distribute it before realizing the scam. “Security teams working with campaigns, election organizations, fundraising platforms, or any organization adjacent to this environment should treat this cycle as an elevated-risk period for phishing, brand impersonation, and credential-based attacks,” Check Point concluded. “That’s not because the threats are novel, but because the motivation and attention behind them are significantly higher than usual.” The best antivirus for all budgets ➡️ Read our full guide to the best antivirus 1. Best overall: Bitdefender Total Security 2. Best for families: Norton 360 with LifeLock 3. Best for mobile: McAfee Mobile Security Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. CATEGORIES Sead Fadilpašić Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications. LATEST ARTICLES 1 The Trump White House is ready to regulate AI, but it's exactly the wrong body to do so, and its control could become a problem 2 The JBL Xtreme 5 is one of the best Bluetooth speakers I’ve ever tested, delivering mesmerizing bass, impressive clarity, and thunderous power — it earns its asking price in every way imaginable 3 ‘We need an AI that places humanity first’: Microsoft AI CEO outlines hopes to build “humanist superintelligence” - and has seven new models to help him do it 4 Rivian boss says Level 4 autonomous driving is "much closer than people think", but Tesla is struggling to convince its own employees that the technology is reliable 5 'Stop duct-taping human email into machine workflows' — Hostinger unleashes Agentic Mail to fix the biggest bottleneck in AI automation