FEC allows Harvard nonprofit to provide free cybersecurity services to campaigns

The Federal Election Commission has decided that Harvard’s Defending Digital Democracy Project’s non-profit, “Defending Digital Campaigns,” may provide free and low-cost cybersecurity services to political campaigns without violating campaign finance laws, given the fact that there is a “highly unusual and serious threat” posed to U.S. elections by foreign adversaries. The driving force behind the FEC’s advisory opinion, which FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub issued Tuesday, is the fact that there is a “demonstrated, currently enhanced threat of foreign cyberattacks against party and candidate committees,” she writes in the advisory. In the ruling. Weintraub notes the FEC’s decision in partly due to the other efforts by the government, primarily to expose and prosecuting foreign adversaries, has not done enough to protect campaigns and political parties. “[F]oreign cyberattacks, in which the attackers may not have any spending or physical presence in the United States, may present unique challenges to both criminal prosecution and […]

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