Security News > 2020 > August > Shoring Up the 2020 Election: Secure Vote Tallies Aren’t the Problem

With the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election coming up in just two months, cybersecurity concerns are taking center stage for average citizens and politicians.

"Due to the spread of COVID-19, we are seeing a number of election environments shift online, to varying degrees, with political parties conducting virtual fundraisers, campaigns moving town halls to online platforms and election officials using online forms to facilitate voting by mail," said Jocelyn Woolbright, a researcher with Cloudflare, who added that cybercriminals are increasingly targeting these resources.

"Unfortunately, many local governments are still struggling to increase their cyber-defense capabilities and are easy targets. Cybercriminals wishing to disrupt the election process are likely targeting these voter-registration databases months and even years leading up to election day. Incorrect or modified voter data could have an impact on the election process. Local governments who are responsible for the cyber-protection of these databases should be working now to improve the cybersecurity posture associated with the voter databases."

Organizations may get outside help too: Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency, said at Information Security Media Group's Cybersecurity Virtual Summit recently that the Feds will offer local and state government election officials technical support, training and cyber-hygiene exercises needed to ensure a more secure election in November.

"Iran has a less direct focus on individual election campaigns, but they're very, very active in the false persona disinformation, and are especially very active on platforms such as Facebook. They create hundreds or thousands of fake accounts and really amplify news stories that are obviously pro-Iranian. We haven't seen them targeting any specific elections systems or election infrastructure yet."

News URL

https://threatpost.com/2020-election-secure-vote-tallies-problem/158533/