Category Archives: 2020 election

Securing voter registration databases takes on added importance in pandemic, DHS official says

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The expansion of voting by mail during the coronavirus pandemic makes it all the more important that election officials secure voter registration databases from hacking, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security official. The greater amount of absentee voting and mail-in ballots “shifts the risk towards voter registration data security,” Matt Masterson, senior adviser at DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said Wednesday during a virtual conference. People voting by mail generally won’t have access to the same provisional-balloting process that those voting in person can use if they’ve been left off of voter rolls due to an administrative error. That makes the integrity of voter registration data all the more important in the era of COVID-19, Masterson said. The novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 120,000 people in the U.S., has forced many states to postpone presidential primaries and ramp up voting-by-mail options. Forty-six states currently offer all of their voters some form […]

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Google: Biden and Trump campaigns targeted by separate spearphishing campaigns

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Hackers linked with China and Iran have been sending malicious spearphishing emails to staff on Joe Biden and President Donald Trump’s campaigns respectively, according to a researcher with Google’s Threat Analysis Group. Chinese government-linked hackers have been targeting Biden’s staffers, whereas Iranian government-linked hackers have been targeting Trump’s campaign, according to Shane Huntley, the Director of Google’s Threat Analysis Group. There is no evidence that the hacking attempts have resulted in compromises, Huntley said. This is just the latest warning from security researchers and the U.S. intelligence community that foreign government-backed hackers are interested in targeting various U.S. presidential campaigns during the 2020 election cycle, in what is turning out to be a tumultuous year for American citizens amid economic turmoil, the coronavirus pandemic, and mass protests about racism. “We have known from the beginning of our campaign that we would be subject to such attacks and we are prepared for […]

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Pandemic Serves Up Security Woes for Election

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As if the issue of election security were not complex enough before 2020, the current concerns about standing in crowds of voters amid the pandemic have only further ramped up concerns about November’s election. Issues such as how to potentially imple… Continue reading Pandemic Serves Up Security Woes for Election→

DHS memo: ‘Significant’ security risks presented by online voting

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The Department of Homeland Security has told election officials and voting vendors that internet-connected voting is risky to the point that ballots returned online “could be manipulated at scale” by a malicious attacker. The advisory that DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency sent states on Friday is perhaps the federal government’s sternest warning yet against online voting. It comes as officials weigh their options for conducting elections during a pandemic and as digital voting vendors see an opportunity to hawk their products. While the risk of election officials delivering ballots to voters via the internet can be managed, the return of those ballots by voters “faces significant security risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of voted ballots,” CISA said in the guidance, which CyberScoop reviewed. “These risks can ultimately affect the tabulation and results and, can occur at scale.” The guidance, which is marked “For Official Use Only” and […]

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It’s hard for campaigns to be transparent without aiding attackers

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Everyone knows what happened to John Podesta in 2016. Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager clicked on a phishing email, and as far as we know, it was the first time a cyberattack shaped a presidential election. This time around, the campaigns are more focused on recognizing and stopping phishing attacks. That’s good, because phishing has become way more sophisticated over the last four years, including the painstaking research smart attackers run. So if we were to see a repeat of 2016, where would hackers conduct their homework? They could look no further than the Federal Election Commission, whose website illustrates how tough it is to balance transparency and security. The bad guys are looking, too Check out the FEC’s campaign finance data repository. It enables anyone to see where campaigns are spending their money: They’re required to list individuals, vendors, and others they are paying to support their operations. The site […]

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Data Breach Occurs at Agency in Charge of Secure White House Communications

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A leak at the Defense Information Systems Agency exposed personal information of government employees, including social security numbers. Continue reading Data Breach Occurs at Agency in Charge of Secure White House Communications→

Hackers Can Seize Control of Ballots Cast Using the Voatz Voting App, Researchers Say

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Flaws in the blockchain app some states plan to use in the 2020 election allow bad actors to alter or cancel someone’s vote or expose their private info. Continue reading Hackers Can Seize Control of Ballots Cast Using the Voatz Voting App, Researchers Say→

Facebook declares war on ‘deepfakes’

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Beleaguered social media platform Facebook is stepping up its game against media manipulation. Recognizing that deepfake content poses a real threat to society, Zuck’s social network swears to ban all such content from its platform, starting now…. Continue reading Facebook declares war on ‘deepfakes’→