Collaborate Disseminate
Lord cleaned up the Democratic Party’s cybersecurity practices in the aftermath of the 2016 hacks.
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The Democratic National Committee is striving to “make it more expensive for attackers to do their work” as it prepares for a 2020 election, Bob Lord, the committee’s chief security officer, told CyberScoop. It is a simple but proven principle of cybersecurity: Make it harder for hackers to succeed by implementing time-tested basics like two-factor authentication. The question for the DNC is: How do you aggressively broaden adoption of such practices for campaigns and state parties scattered across the country, many which have very limited budgets? That far-flung apparatus is not the chain of command that Lord was used to when he was a cybersecurity executive at companies like Yahoo and Rapid7. “Because we’re a decentralized ecosystem, it presents a number of interesting challenges,” he said in an interview. “I don’t have the ability to order people to do things. Nor can I practically manage all of their systems. But what I can do […]
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As Washington turns its attention to the 2020 presidential election, the Democratic National Committee on Friday released updated security guidance it says will “dramatically reduce the risk” of hackers breaching candidates’ devices. The checklist is straightforward security advice driven by an awareness of current threats. The DNC, scarred by the Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election, has invested in improving Democrats’ cyberdefenses in the last two years. U.S. intelligence officials warn that foreign adversaries will continue to target political organizations ahead of votes being cast in 2020. “Our adversaries are already at work, whether a candidate has announced or not,” DNC Chief Security Officer Bob Lord said in a statement. The DNC checklist advises candidates and their staffers to encrypt their laptops in case they are lost or stolen and to use a password manager to make it harder for attackers to crack credentials. The committee is encouraging everyone from […]
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The DNC thought it was getting hacked again, but it was just a false alarm set off by a security test. It’s a sign that the organization is taking its cybersecurity seriously. Continue reading The DNC False Alarm Hack Is Good Cybersecurity, Bad PR
The Democratic National Party now says a phishing campaign against its voter database revealed Wednesday was in fact an unauthorized test by a third party and not the work of a malicious attacker. “We, along with the partners who reported the site, now believe it was built by a third party as part of a simulated phishing test on VoteBuilder,” DNC Chief Security Officer Bob Lord said in a statement. “The test, which mimicked several attributes of actual attacks on the Democratic party’s voter file, was not authorized by the DNC, VoteBuilder nor any of our vendors.” Lord did not identify the unauthorized third party that had carried out the phishing test. Citing a source familiar with the matter, PCMag reported that the Michigan Democratic Party had given its approval for an unnamed organization to carry out the test. Spearphishing was devastatingly effective during the 2016 presidential campaign, as Russian hackers breached […]
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The Democratic National Committee has warned candidates running in the 2018 midterm elections not to use devices made by Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE because of security concerns. “[P]lease make sure that you are not using or purchasing ZTE or Huawei devices anywhere within your staff – for personal or work-related use,” DNC Chief Security Officer Bob Lord wrote in an email obtained by CyberScoop. Lord sent the email Friday to Democratic state parties and the DNC’s sister committees. U.S. intelligence officials have long expressed concerns that equipment from Huawei and ZTE could be used to spy on Americans due to the companies’ alleged links to the Chinese government. Both companies have vigorously denied the allegations. Lord cited congressional testimony from February, in which U.S. intelligence directors raised security concerns about the Chinese companies. “I wanted to highlight that the intelligence community does not make statements like this lightly,” […]
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The Democratic National Committee has named Bob Lord as its new chief security officer, hiring the former Yahoo CISO to lead the committee’s cybersecurity operations heading into the 2018 midterm elections. The hire was announced Thursday through a statement released by the DNC. The committee mentions that Lord will work with the organization’s own internal security team as well as in the field to support state parties, including efforts to update their “information security strategies” and improve practices to “change the economics” for attackers. “I’m confident Bob’s skills and hard work will help protect us against the sort of cyberattacks and intrusions that are unfortunately all too common in today’s age,” DNC Chair Tom Perez said in a release. “Defense is an essential part of any game plan, and I couldn’t be happier with Bob holding the line for the DNC.” The DNC has never employed a CSO before. But the […]
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Experts at InfoArmor said the stolen database of 1 billion Yahoo accounts has been sold multiple times for at least $300,000 each time. Continue reading Stolen Yahoo Data Sold to Spammers, One Government Client
Just months after disclosing a breach that compromised the passwords for a half billion of its users, Yahoo now says a separate incident has jeopardized data from at least a billion more user accounts. The company also warned attackers have figured out a way to log into targeted Yahoo accounts without even supplying the victim’s password. Continue reading Yahoo: One Billion More Accounts Hacked