Securing Elections

Minimalist · Apr 30, 2019

NSA's Russian cyberthreat task force is now permanent

The task force the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command created last year to thwart Russian influence and cyberattacks on the U.S. is now permanent, spokespeople from both agencies confirmed to CyberScoop.
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https://www.cyberscoop.com/nsa-russia-small-group-cyber-command/

Minimalist · Apr 30, 2019

Defending Democracies Against Information Attacks

To better understand influence attacks, we proposed an approach that models democracy itself as an information system and explains how democracies are vulnerable to certain forms of information attacks that autocracies naturally resist. Our model combines ideas from both international security and computer security, avoiding the limitations of both in explaining how influence attacks may damage democracy as a whole.
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https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/04/defending_democ.html

guest · May 1, 2019

Controversy over which DMARC setting will best protect the 2020 presidential campaigns
May 1, 2019
https://www.scmagazine.com/home/sec...best-protect-the-2020-presidential-campaigns/

A pair of email security firms are taking opposing positions on whether or not the 2020 presidential candidates are using secure email systems within their campaigns even though many of the candidates are using DMARC.

Valimail and Agari have each issued report cards to show if the Democratic Party hopefuls learned a learned a lesson from the hacking woes that plagued Hillary Clinton in 2016 and have implemented DMARC to protect their campaign email accounts.
And as with everything else in politics the two sides disagree.

Contending that “little has changed since 2016,” Agari founder Patrick Peterson wrote in a blog post that “campaigns continue to struggle with email security, primarily because very few candidates have dedicated staff or resources to implement the defenses this mission-critical communications channel requires.”
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ronjor · May 6, 2019

Microsoft offers software tools to secure elections

by Frank Bajak May 6, 2019
Microsoft is announcing an ambitious effort intended to make U.S. voting more secure and verifiable.
The company will offer free open-source software that several top U.S. elections vendors say they will explore incorporating into their voting equipment.
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guest · May 6, 2019

Facebook Opens a Command Post to Thwart Election Meddling in Europe
May 5, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/...st-to-thwart-election-meddling-in-europe.html

Eager to show it is taking threats seriously as it faces pressure from governments across Europe to protect the integrity of the election, Facebook invited about two dozen journalists to visit its hub last week.

“We are fundamentally dealing with a security challenge,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy. “There are a set of actors that want to manipulate public debate.”

Facebook allowed journalists to observe for only a few minutes. Citing security concerns, the company didn’t allow employee interviews, and it limited what could be photographed.
Facebook also wouldn’t say what actions the European team had taken since the center opened last week, other than it had reviewed “hundreds” of pieces of material.
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Minimalist · May 11, 2019

Election Security Act reintroduced in Senate as hacking fears swell ahead of 2020 race

Democrats in the House followed Senate colleagues on Friday in proposing legislation meant to safeguard future elections from foreign interference.

Introduced by Reps. Bennie Bennie of Mississippi, Zoe Lofgren of California and John Sarbanes of Maryland, the Election Security Act would require states to use paper ballots, establish federal cybersecurity standards for vendors of voting systems and allocate more than $1 billion toward securing and maintaining related infrastructure, among other measures.
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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/11/election-security-act-reintroduced-in-senate-as-ha/

guest · May 14, 2019

Two Florida counties were hacked in 2016 election, says Gov. DeSantis
May 14, 2019
https://www.cnet.com/news/two-florida-counties-were-hacked-in-2016-election-says-gov-desantis/

Russian hackers hit not one, but two Florida voter databases during the 2016 US presidential election, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Tuesday.
The Florida governor clarified that no votes were manipulated and election results were not altered.

"Two Florida counties experienced intrusion into the supervisor of election networks," DeSantis said at a press conference on Tuesday. "There was no manipulation or anything but there was voter data that was able to be got. Now, that voter data was public anyway, nevertheless, those were intrusions. It did not affect any voting or anything like that."

DeSantis, state election officials and law enforcement officials learned about the breach during an FBI briefing on Friday.
The hackers gained access to Florida's election databases through spearphishing emails [...]
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guest · May 15, 2019

mood said: ↑

Two Florida counties were hacked in 2016 election, says Gov. DeSantis
May 14, 2019
https://www.cnet.com/news/two-florida-counties-were-hacked-in-2016-election-says-gov-desantis/
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Florida Governor Says 'NDA' Prevents Him From Naming Counties Hacked by Russia
May 14, 2019
https://gizmodo.com/florida-governor-says-nda-prevents-him-from-naming-coun-1834763195

“I’m not allowed to name the counties. I signed a [non]disclosure agreement,” he said.
The use of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in this case naturally raised a few eyebrows. NDAs are commonly thought of as a device used by corporations to set boundaries regarding what information an employee can discuss outside the workplace.

In DeSantis’ case, the most likely explanation for why he signed an NDA is that the briefing he received contained classified information.
Prior to being briefed, he was forced to contractually agree not to disclose what he learned (beyond the fact that it was two counties, not one, that got breached).
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guest · May 18, 2019

FBI refuses to tell Florida voters whether their information was targeted by Russia hackers in 2016 election
May 17, 2019
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...kers-2016-election-ron-desantis-a8918111.html

FBI officials said the names of the hacked counties should remain classified because identifying them could tip off the Russians to law enforcement sources and methods. That argument did little to quell the politicians’ frustrations [...]
The FBI notified the two counties of the breach as part of the agency’s victim notification protocol, several lawmakers said. As part of that protocol, the FBI does not publicly identify victims, to maintain productive working relationships with them.

Without knowing which counties were breached, voters can do little to hold elections supervisors (who are elected officials in all but one Florida county) accountable for taking the necessary steps to prevent a similar hacking in the future, lawmakers said.
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ronjor · May 21, 2019

Best Practices for Securing Election Systems

Original release date: May 21, 2019
By adhering to cybersecurity best practices, election organizations—including state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments—can improve the security of their election systems. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Hunt and Incident Response Team (HIRT) developed the best practices in this tip from lessons learned through engagements with SLTT governments, election stakeholders, and others. Organizations can implement these best practices, which harden enterprise networks and strengthen election infrastructure, at little or no cost. CISA’s election systems best practices cover the following topics:
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guest · May 27, 2019

Canada says Microsoft and Facebook will do more to help ensure security of election
May 27, 2019
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...elp-ensure-security-of-election-idUSKCN1SX1T7

Microsoft Corp and Facebook Inc have agreed to help boost the security of Canada’s October election by removing fake accounts and cracking down on bots, a top government official said on Monday.
The measures are outlined in a non-binding declaration on electoral integrity, Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould told legislators.

“The Wild West online era cannot continue - inaction is not an option. Disinformation must not stand,” said Gould. Government officials say they fear Russian actors will try to interfere in the vote.
“I urge other platforms to follow suit in the coming days,” she added in a clear reference to Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google.
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hawki · Jun 5, 2019

"Russian trolls raked in big bucks in ad revenue from social media campaign to get Trump elected

Russian trolls raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars by flooding U.S. social media with 2016 campaign propaganda...

Accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency generated up to nearly $1 million by pushing out false or misleading content, according to new research by cybersecurity firm Symantec, and they then used automated accounts to amplify their messages..."

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/ru...l-media-campaign-to-get-trump-elected-report/

Minimalist · Jun 5, 2019

As Europe Went to the Polls, Cyber Election Efforts Paid Off

The region’s heightened cyber security standards helped secure a continent-wide election that many feared would come under attack
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https://www.symantec.com/blogs/election-security/europe-went-polls-cyber-election-efforts-paid

guest · Jun 5, 2019

Feds to test North Carolina election computers for hacking
June 5, 2019
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/w...-carolina-election-computers-hacking-63516380

More than two years after North Carolina check-in software failed on Election Day, federal authorities will finally examine equipment from a company targeted by Russian military hackers to determine if intentional tampering aimed at disrupting voting occurred.
DHS spokeswoman Sara Sendek said the forensic examination, first reported by The Washington Post, and other support "may help to provide a better understanding of previous issues and help to secure the 2020 election."

"We believed then and now that the cause of the problem was poll worker error, and that a forensic analysis would prove it," Martin said in an email. The company is confident the DHS review will prove its voting software "was not breached or compromised."
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ronjor · Jun 6, 2019

FBI Releases Article on Protected Voices Campaign

Original release date: June 06, 2019
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released an article on the Protected Voices initiative designed to mitigate the risk of cyber influence operations targeting U.S. elections. As part of the initiative, FBI offices are coordinating with political campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels across the country to make them aware of potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities. In partnership with the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI has also released a series of short videos to help political campaigns defend their computer networks. The videos include tips and best practices on topics such as setting strong passwords and defending against social engineering.
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guest · Jun 9, 2019

Top voting machine maker reverses position on election security, promises paper ballots
June 9, 2019
https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/09/voting-machine-maker-election-security/

Voting machine maker ES&S has said it “will no longer sell” paperless voting machines as the primary device for casting ballots in a jurisdiction.
ES&S chief executive Tom Burt confirmed the news in an op-ed.

Burt’s op-ed said voting machines “must have physical paper records of votes” to prevent mistakes or tampering that could lead to improperly cast votes.
The chief executive also called on Congress to pass legislation mandating a stronger election machine testing program.

Although unexpected, election security experts have generally applauded ES&S’ shift in position.
Matt Blaze, a cryptography and computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a tweet he was “genuinely glad” the company is calling for paper ballots and mandatory security testing.
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Minimalist · Jun 11, 2019

Russia accused of hacking EU embassy in Moscow

Russia is believed to have hacked the Europian Union’s embassy in Moscow in a sophisticated cyberespionage attack designed to steal highly sensitive material from the mission’s internal network just weeks before the European Parliament elections.
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https://www.scmagazine.com/home/sec...ge-attack-to-steal-highly-sensitive-material/

guest · Jun 13, 2019

Wyden and Klobuchar press FBI for answers about Russian attack on Florida company
June 12, 2019
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/12/wyden-klobuchar-fbi-florida-russia-attack-1524573

Questions have lingered for two years about whether Russians hacked a Florida maker of election-related software in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections.
They sent a letter on Wednesday morning to the bureau asking what steps it took in 2016, if any, to examine VR Systems servers for evidence of a breach.

If the FBI didn’t do a forensic exam, it raises questions about how it could know whether or not the company was hacked.
VR Systems has never responded to questions from POLITICO about whether the FBI conducted a forensic investigation of its systems and network in 2016 or if, at the very least, the bureau obtained mirror images of its hard drives to preserve for a later forensic investigation if needed.
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Minimalist · Jun 15, 2019

Election hacking has never been cheaper, easier or more profitable

The ubiquity of low-cost hacking tools means that elections in the United States and all over the world are persistently threatened by a large and diverse set of hackers. Spikes in malware and phishing attacks targeting political campaigns have been detected during recent elections in Russia, Turkey, Colombia, Azerbaijan and Mali; keyloggers and Trojans were detected in key battleground states ahead of the 2018 US midterm election; and according to the Department of Homeland Security, during the 2016 election all 50 states saw some type of attempted cyberintrusion.
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https://www.cnet.com/news/election-hacking-has-never-been-cheaper-easier-or-more-profitable/

guest · Jun 18, 2019

Florida Effort to Block Election Hacking Gets Extra $2M
June 18, 2019
https://www.securityweek.com/florida-effort-block-election-hacking-gets-extra-2m

DeSantis announced the unspent money is left over from a $19 million federal grant given last year to combat potential attacks on the Florida’s voting system and was supposed to be returned to the state. It will be combined with $2.8 million in state funding currently budgeted.

“We are taking the issue seriously,” DeSantis said. “We have 67 different elections that are run and not every county has the same amount of resources so we want to be there to offer the support so the election is run smoothly.”
DeSantis said he hopes no vulnerabilities are found but if there are, he doesn’t think they should be publicly disclosed.
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guest · Jun 19, 2019

22 State Attorneys General Seek Election Security Help
June 19, 2019
https://www.inforisktoday.com/22-state-attorneys-general-seek-election-security-help-a-12663

"The nature of the threat against our election system requires the federal government to provide increased assistance to the states," Ellison writes. "Securing our election systems is a matter of national security, and we hope that you will take immediate action to protect our election infrastructure and restore Americans' trust in our election system."

The letter from the attorneys general notes that in 2018, Congress provided $380 million to help local governments improve their election security, but it argues that more is needed. "Our state and local election officials are on the front lines of the fight to protect our election infrastructure, but they lack the resources necessary to combat a sophisticated foreign adversary like Russia," it states.
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guest · Jun 24, 2019

Election Security
June 24, 2019
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/06/election_securi_3.html

Stanford University's Cyber Policy Center has published a long report on the security of US elections. Summary: it's not good.
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White paper: "Securing American Elections: Prescriptions for Enhancing the Integrity and Independence of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Elections and Beyond"
(PDF - 1.55 MB): https://stanford.box.com/shared/static/xd35pzvlnl2konx16suee7mqvjvk6nrb.pdf

Minimalist · Jun 26, 2019

Elizabeth Warren wants to overhaul U.S. election security

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., released a plan focused on election security Tuesday that would replace every voting machine in the U.S. with “state-of-the-art” technology and require states to follow federal standards for federal elections.
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https://www.cyberscoop.com/elizabeth-warren-plan-to-overhaul-u-s-election-security/

guest · Jun 27, 2019

House passes bill to protect election systems, but Senate passage is unlikely
June 27, 2019
https://www.engadget.com/2019/06/27/house-passes-bill-to-protect-election-systems/

The House passed a bill that would require states to strengthen their voting systems from hacking. Known as the SAFE Act (HR 2722), the chamber approved the bill by a party-line vote of 225-184.

If passed, the bill would mandate the use of paper ballots and require all voting machines be made in the US. The bill would also authorize $600 million for states to update their voting security systems and $175 million biannually.
Election security experts have long warned that paperless ballot systems are vulnerable to hacking.
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guest · Jul 2, 2019

MPs Call For Protection From Hacking Ahead of Elections
July 2, 2019
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/mps-call-protection-hacking-ahead-1/

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCSM) committee has called for the government to introduce legislation within six months to protect against online electoral interference [...]

Damian Collins, chair of the DCMS Committee, said: “We’re calling on the government to bring in urgent legislation before the end of the year to protect our democracy against online electoral interference.
“We know that our electoral laws are not fit for purpose. Political campaigns are fought online, not through the letterbox and our laws need to be brought up to date with the digital age. We’ve repeatedly highlighted threats to our electoral system and it’s essential that public confidence is restored.”
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