Security News > 2020 > August > U.S. Offers Reward of $10M for Info Leading to Discovery of Election Meddling
The U.S. Department of State's Rewards for Justice program, overseen by the Diplomatic Security Service, will pay for info that can identify or locate someone workingwith or for a foreign government "For the purpose of interfering with U.S. elections through certain illegal cyber activities," according to a release posted on the department's website.
The reward covers anyone seeking to interfere with an election at the federal, state or local level by violating or even aiding the violation of a U.S. law against computer fraud and abuse, according to the department.
The conference opened with Voting Village security celeb Matt Blaze calling for cybersecurity experts during his keynote to leverage their passion for election security to help secure the upcoming U.S. presidential elections.
The move signaled that voting-machine vendors also are beginning to take the role of the security research community seriously in helping to secure critical election infrastructure.
Christopher Krebs, director of the Department of Homeland Security's CISA unit, also was expected to speak on election security Wednesday at a session at Black Hat called "Election Security: Securing America's Elections" to discuss the risks for the 2020 presidential election and how the government hopes to mitigate them.