Security News
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday offered a $10 million reward aimed at preventing foreign interference in the November election, as the State Department accused Russia of waging an increasingly sophisticated disinformation campaign. The reward marks one of the most public signs that members of President Donald Trump's administration are taking election meddling seriously, despite anger by Trump himself over findings that Russia has assisted him.
Though the attackers apparently didn't make changes to votes or voter rolls, the revelation was enough to raise doubts about voting security. In the meantime, the federal government is providing state and local officials with additional tools - endpoint detection and response software - to help defend the nation's election systems from cyberthreats ahead of the November vote.
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.
Under a $2.2 million pilot program that began in March, the Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency in partnership with the Center for Internet Security has been deploying software to election offices. Officials said the effort was just the latest in steps taken to shore up cybersecurity since the 2016 presidential election.
The US House of Representatives has passed a spending bill which includes a $500m election security provision. Specifically, the half-billion goes to the US Election Assistance Commission and will give states money that will be used to replace electronic voting machines with ones that provide a paper trail of results.
The US House of Representatives has passed a spending bill which includes a $500m election security provision. Specifically, the half-billion goes to the US Election Assistance Commission and will give states money that will be used to replace electronic voting machines with ones that provide a paper trail of results.
Federal authorities say one of the gravest threats to the November election is a well-timed ransomware attack that could paralyze voting operations. "We're seeing state and local entities targeted with ransomware on a near daily basis," said Geoff Hale, a top election security official with Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Intelligence officials confirmed in recent days that foreign actors are actively seeking to compromise the private communications of "U.S. political campaigns, candidates and other political targets" while working to compromise the nation's election infrastructure. Because of such secrecy, at least in part, foreign interference largely remains an afterthought in the 2020 contest, even as Republicans and Democrats alike concede it poses a serious threat that could fundamentally reshape the election at any moment.
I know, it's not presented by Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, necessarily, but there is always really cool car security research that comes out of Black Hat. You know, it'll be interesting to see how I mean how the vendors deal with communicating their messages outside of the Black Hat in a sense that you know, so much about Black Hat wasn't actually about the sessions, but some of the off-site stuff and some of the meet and greets and some of the private briefings.
The majority of state and local election administrators have only rudimentary or non-standard technologies to protect themselves from phishing. Fewer than 3 out of 10 election administrators have basic controls to prevent phishing.