FEMA chief "very concerned" about disinformation from U.S. adversaries after disasters

What she's saying: "I'm very concerned about convergence cyberattacks with our natural disaster — that our adversaries know when we are most vulnerable and know how to take advantage of those times," Criswell said at the Axios event in Dubai.

• "I'm very concerned about this new threat landscape that is coming into our environment and creating challenges that we haven't faced before," she said, adding that this includes the spreading of misinformation and disinformation.
• "It's creating so much difficulty for us to get people who really need our help to come ask us for the help because it's created this level of distrust," she said. "It's a whole new challenge."

Zoom in: Pro-Russian social media accounts tried to "discourage the people of Lahina from going to the agencies that could help them," Brad Smith, the vice chairman and president of Microsoft, testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee meeting in September. Microsoft, along with several organizations, examined the misinformation and disinformation spread online following the August fires.

• Smith said researchers also saw "what we believe is Chinese-directed activity, trying to persuade the world in multiple languages that the fire was caused by the United States government itself using a meteorological weapon," he added.

• Pro-Russian accounts on X, formerly Twitter, spread misleading claims after the East Palestine train derailment that appeared to be an attempt to sow distrust, the AP reported, citing a report by Reset, a nonprofit based in London.

Go deeper: Democracy isn't ready for its AI test