Collaborate Disseminate
Cyber-researchers weigh in on what concerns them the most as the U.S. heads into the final weekend before the presidential election — and they also highlight the positives. Continue reading Crippling Cyberattacks, Disinformation Top Concerns for Election Day
Ahead of the November U.S. elections, cybercriminals are stepping up their offensive in both attacks against security infrastructure and disinformation campaigns – but this time, social media giants, the government and citizens are more prepared. Continue reading Cybercriminals Step Up Their Game Ahead of U.S. Elections
With less than three months until the midterm elections, the Department of Homeland Security held a three-day exercise this week that allowed state and local officials to practice warding off an array of cyberthreats, from spear-phishing campaigns to distributed denial of service attacks. The drills, which featured officials from 44 states, the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, among other federal agencies, “explored potential impacts to voter confidence, voting operations, and the integrity of elections,” according to a DHS statement. The Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency charged with distributing $380 million in election-security funding to states, also took part. DHS said private vendors participated in the exercise, but did not name them. The exercise covered several scenarios, according to DHS: spear phishing against election officials; social media manipulation related to political candidates; “disruption” of voter registration IT systems; distributed denial-of-service attacks and “web defacements” affecting board of election […]
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Continue reading DHS holds election security exercise with states to prep for midterms
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has asked the Election Assistance Commission to issue updated cybersecurity guidance to states to protect their voting infrastructure ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Congress allotted $380 million to states through a March spending bill to help secure their voting systems, a move that analysts welcomed as necessary, but insufficient to replace paperless voting machines that could fall prey to digital manipulation. “Absent guidance from the EAC, some states may opt to spend these new funds on insecure voting technology,” Wyden wrote in a letter obtained by CyberScoop. “Election security experts have worked tirelessly to understand and articulate the vulnerabilities certain types of machines can introduce into elections,” Wyden wrote, adding that new EAC guidance must incorporate those findings. The senator also wants the EAC to answer a series of questions by July 15, including whether the commission has any fulltime cybersecurity experts on staff and if it […]
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Continue reading Wyden asks election commission to issue fresh cybersecurity guidance
Lawmakers are concerned about a major blind spot in the government’s ongoing effort to protect U.S. elections from hackers. Agencies like the Homeland Security Department have little insight into the cybersecurity practices of election technology vendors. This lack of visibility opens the door to supply chain attacks, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which could be otherwise potentially detected or stopped by government cybersecurity experts. The Senate committee’s first installment of a larger report on Russian targeting of the 2016 presidential election was released late Tuesday night. It focuses on assessing the federal government’s response to security threats and provides recommendations for future elections. Most of the infrastructure used to process votes today is comprised of equipment and software sold by private vendors. Government agencies are not allowed to enter and defend private computer networks unless they’re given direct consent, which in turn limits the defensive support options immediately available to the […]
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Continue reading Senate report on Russian hacking highlights threats to election tech vendors
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday published recommendations to improve election infrastructure cybersecurity as the 2018 election season is set to kick into high gear. The effort comes after numerous reports that Russian-linked entities tried to penetrate election systems in the weeks before the 2016 election. “It is clear the Russian government was looking for vulnerabilities in our election systems, ” Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said. “There is no evidence any vote was changed.” The committee urged its peers to “urgently pass legislation” increasing assistance to states to hire technology staff, update software, contract cybersecurity vendors and conduct security audits. “There were 40 states that were operating with election equipment that was a decade old,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. “Much of that equipment had outdated software you weren’t able to upgrade even if you chose to.” The Senate Intelligence Committee’s number one recommendation is to ensure that states, not the […]
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Continue reading Senate Intelligence Committee pushes for improvements to election cybersecurity
State election officials from all 50 states are to receive classified briefings from intelligence officials Friday and Sunday about threats to election security. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced on Thursday that it will hold the briefings in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI “as part of an ongoing effort to ensure the integrity and security of the nation’s election infrastructure.” The briefings coincide with annual conferences for the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors being held through the weekend in Washington, D.C. Since the 2016 presidential election, lawmakers have been calling on the intelligence community to expedite the security clearance process for state election officials in order for them to review information about election threats. Several bills have been introduced in Congress in recent months with involvement from both parties that would set requirements around this issue. The […]
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Continue reading ODNI holds classified briefings on election security for all 50 states
Two U.S. senators are introducing a bill that aims to increase states’ preparedness for cyber interference in federal elections amid concerns about foreign meddling in the 2016 election, Reuters reported. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., announced the the Securing America’s Voting Equipment (SAVE) Act on Tuesday, which would authorize the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to issue security clearances to state officials in charge of running federal elections. The clearance would allow the DNI to share classified intelligence about election threats with those officials. The legislation would also authorize a grant program to let states upgrade their election technology. While the Department of Homeland Security designated election systems as “critical infrastructure” in January, this bill would reiterate that designation as legislation. The DHS last month notified 21 states that their election systems were scanned by Russian hackers looking for vulnerabilities. However some of those states challenged that notion and said their systems were never scanned […]
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Continue reading Senators introduce election cybersecurity bill to improve information sharing