The ongoing general election may be exposed to attempts to influence foreign states.
This is stated in a threat assessment prepared by the Danish Police Intelligence Service (PET), the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) and the Danish Agency for Community Security (SAMSIK) in Denmark.
According to the assessment, the threat of influence comes primarily from Russia due to Denmark's involvement in the Ukraine war, but the threat may also come from other state actors.
- The influence activities may aim to create discord, influence the public debate or be targeted at specific candidates, parties or political agendas, writes PET.
The USA and Greenland are mentioned
The threat assessment specifically mentions that the USA's stated desire to take ownership of Greenland has led to the spread of misinformation and disinformation regarding the Kingdom of Denmark, which may create uncertainty in connection with the upcoming parliamentary elections:
- The USA's focus on the Kingdom has also created new international conflict lines that foreign states such as Russia and China can exploit for influence purposes, the assessment further states.
Influence may come from the MAGA environment
The assessment emphasizes that the USA wants a different direction for political developments in Europe, and this may be reflected in activities from US authorities that may have a knock-on effect on the debate in Denmark:
- Any US attempts to influence the public debate in Europe may originate from many different actors without formal affiliation with the US administration. This applies, among other things, to: private individuals or networks around the MAGA environment, the authorities write.
Likely with attacks from Russia
According to the threat assessment, it is very likely that Denmark is an independent, prioritized target for Russian influence activities such as disinformation, i.e. deliberate spread of false or distorted messages, less extensive cyber attacks, such as overload attacks, and threats of serious cyber attacks.
On February 20, a cyber attack took place in Greenland. Here, the authorities reported a so-called DDoS attack against several websites in Greenland, and a Russian hacker group took responsibility for the attack.
Sermitsiaq has asked PET whether it is possible to get further comments on the situation surrounding the elections in Greenland, but PET refers to the issued assessment.
