Securing Elections

guest · Aug 28, 2019

Facebook making it tougher to advertise during the 2020 U.S. presidential election
August 28, 2019
https://www.neowin.net/news/faceboo...tise-during-the-2020-us-presidential-election

Facebook has announced that it will be making it tougher to register to advertise during the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential elections. It hopes the move will restrict questionable entities posting ads which could be misleading or untrue. Until now, advertisers were able to add “misleading” ‘Paid for by’ disclaimers; from mid-September, however, they’ll be required to state the name of the organization pushing the ad.

With the new process, there are five ways that an entity can register to publish ads. If an entity wants their ad ‘i’ icon to contain a ‘Confirmed Organization’ flag they must register with a U.S. address, phone number, business email, and business website with the matching email, additionally they must supply their tax-registered organization identification number (EIN), or a government website domain that matches an email ending in .gov or .mil, or provide a Federal Election Commission (FEC) identification number.

As we approach the elections, Facebook will be furthering its ad transparency efforts. There will be enhancements to Ad Library which will make it easier to track and compare the spending of presidential candidates, it’ll prohibit ads that discourage people from voting at all, [...]
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Minimalist · Sep 1, 2019

States brace for ransomware assaults on voter registries

The challenge: lock down the most exposed part of the nation's election system.
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https://www.cnet.com/news/states-prepare-for-ransomware-attacks-on-voter-registries/

Minimalist · Sep 1, 2019

What You Need To Know About U.S. Election Security And Voting Machines

Voting systems in the United States have come a long way since the hanging chads of the 2000 recount in Florida — but now cybersecurity is as big a concern as ballot fidelity.

Here's what you need to know.
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https://www.kqed.org/news/11771682/...out-u-s-election-security-and-voting-machines

Minimalist · Sep 2, 2019

Cost and security issues fuel concern for 2020 GLA elections

The Greater London Authority (GLA) Elections use e-counting machines to tally votes. These e-counting machines have been criticised by the Electoral Commission in successive reports. Not only do the machines often count votes incorrectly, they are also extremely expensive. The Electoral Commission has recommended in successive reports that a cost benefit analysis of e-counting be done, including a costing of manual counting. European Parliamentary elections, which use a similar voting system, are counted by hand in London.
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https://www.openrightsgroup.org/pre...ty-issues-fuel-concern-for-2020-gla-elections

guest · Sep 3, 2019

'Australia is not immune': Data whistleblower warns of Chinese influence on elections
September 1, 2019
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...e-influence-on-elections-20190831-p52mof.html

The whistleblower who exposed the illegitimate access of millions of people's Facebook data says it is overwhelmingly likely a foreign country targeted this year's Australian election.
Christopher Wylie, who blew the whistle on collapsed consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, also names China as a greater and "far more sophisticated" threat to Australia than Russia.

"There is a very strong interest for China to interfere and mould and change the discourse in Australia," he says, citing our relationships with the US, other countries in the Asia Pacific region and China itself as of interest to the Chinese government.
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guest · Sep 3, 2019

There will be election manipulation in 2020. Scientists can’t stop it, but they can study it
September 3, 2019
https://qz.com/1698845/scientists-cant-stop-election-manipulation-but-they-can-study-it/

There’s no doubt Russian influence spread misinformation in the 2016 election. Plenty of questions remain though: Did Russian efforts successfully change election results? How can we know if election interference happens again? And, perhaps most importantly, how can we identify it early enough to to stop it?

Faced with the prospect of ongoing election interference, two MIT professors have published a paper in Science calling for researchers to study election interference, and for social media companies to release the data that makes research possible.
Even if academics can’t quite keep up, though, Eckles believes studying the impact of misinformation can guide policy responses.
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guest · Sep 3, 2019

Deepfake concerns ahead of 2020 election include Iran, China, Instagram, and WhatsApp
September 3, 2019
https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/03/...on-include-iran-china-instagram-and-whatsapp/

U.S. citizens concerned with meddling in the 2020 election should pay close attention to Iran, China, Instagram, and WhatsApp, according to a New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights report released today (PDF).
The report also urged people to look within for the threat, as “domestically generated disinformation now exceeds malign content from foreign sources and will almost certainly be a factor in the next election.”

“While foreign election interference has dominated discussion of contemporary disinformation, most purposely false content in the U.S. is generated by domestic sources. That’s the consensus of social media executives, cybersecurity sleuths, and academic researchers,” the report reads.
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Minimalist · Sep 4, 2019

Tracing Disinformation With Custom Tools, Burner Phones and Encrypted Apps

As the 2020 race heats up, here’s how Matthew Rosenberg, a politics reporter, is preparing for an onslaught of intentional falsehoods.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/technology/personaltech/disinformation-politics-reporting.html

guest · Sep 4, 2019

Tech giants meet intelligence officials to talk 2020 election security
September 4, 2019
https://thehill.com/policy/technolo...ence-officials-to-talk-2020-election-security

Executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter huddled with U.S. intelligence officials in Menlo Park, Calif., on Wednesday to discuss how the companies are working to prevent election meddling ahead of 2020, sources familiar with the meeting confirmed to The Hill.

The meeting is the latest signal that law enforcement is working more closely with tech companies following the 2016 presidential election, which was marked by new and innovative forms of online interference including coordinated disinformation campaigns.
A U.S. intelligence official told The Hill the tech industry invited the intelligence community to participate in the talks.

"[The intelligence community was] there to discuss our shared goal, and that’s protecting democracy and elections from those who wish to do us harm," the official said. "Industry has pulled us in ... and we’re there in support of FBI and DHS."
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guest · Sep 5, 2019

Utah County, Utah, begins review of mobile-app votes
September 4, 2019
https://statescoop.com/utah-county-utah-begins-review-of-mobile-app-votes/

Officials from Utah County, Utah, said Wednesday that the percentage of overseas voters who participated in last month’s local primary elections using a mobile app far outpaced the rate of in-county residents, which the officials chalked up as a win for a new voting technology that is being gradually tested around the country, despite misgivings from ballot-security proponents.

Voatz, which uses multifactor authentication — including facial recognition — to verify eligible users, claims to be more secure and efficient than other electronic means of submitting a vote, including anonymizing them to preserve the privacy of the individual ballot.
While Daniels and Senti did not find any errors in the small batch of ballots they checked, mobile balloting, particularly that conducted by Voatz, has been scrutinized as lacking the same protections as a voter-verified paper ballot.

But Powers Gardner and Daniels defended Voatz, saying it offered more reliability than other forms of voting from abroad, including physical mail, email and fax machines — none of which offer complete anonymity.
The audit itself is ongoing, with the National Cybersecurity Center opening the process to volunteers, Senti said.
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Minimalist · Sep 7, 2019

Will A Massive Effort To Secure The 2020 Vote End Up Superfluous Or Not Enough?

Americans are preparing more than ever to safeguard voting as the nation looks ahead to the Democratic primaries and the general election next year.

What no one can say for certain today is whether all the work may turn out to be superfluous — or whether it'll be enough.
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https://www.npr.org/2019/09/07/7583...he-2020-vote-end-up-superfluous-or-not-enough

guest · Sep 8, 2019

What the NSA is doing to prepare for the 2020 election
September 7, 2019
https://www.wcbi.com/what-the-nsa-is-doing-to-prepare-for-the-2020-election/

The National Security Agency has begun revealing some of its preparations for the 2020 presidential elections, drawing in part from from its previous successes during the 2018 midterm elections. But officials also warned that cyber threats from foreign adversaries were evolving, accelerating and likely to reach a growing number of targets.

NSA officials outlined a three-part approach they said was key to ensuring the security of the 2018 midterms: They first sought to understand adversaries’ activities, and then shared, chiefly through the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, information with potential targets.
“The activities in particular of the 2018 election — as well as just the general growth in cyber mischief — have convinced us that it’s important for us to have one integrated focal point within the National Security Agency to deal with the cybersecurity threats,” NSA general counsel Glenn Gerstell said at the two-day INSA conference.
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guest · Sep 8, 2019

Russia says Facebook, Google distributed political ads on election day
September 8, 2019
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...d-political-ads-on-election-day-idUSKCN1VT0K0

Russian state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said tech giants Google and Facebook (FB.O) had allowed political advertising during Sunday’s regional elections despite being asked to ban such publicity.

“Such actions can be seen as interference in Russia’s sovereign affairs and hindering the conduct of democratic elections in the Russian Federation”, the watchdog said on its website.
Reuters was not able to immediately reach Google or Facebook for comments.
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Minimalist · Sep 9, 2019

Can states get ahead of election system cyberthreats?

Chris Krebs — the director of CISA, an agency charged with protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure from cyberattacks — said at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit Sept. 5 that a significant amount of agency effort is “raising awareness” on potential ransomware efforts targeting state voter registration databases, in which an attacker encrypts a database and will unlock it for a fee, usually paid in bitcoin.
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https://www.fifthdomain.com/civilia...es-get-ahead-of-election-system-cyberthreats/

guest · Sep 9, 2019

A Florida Congresswoman is wondering why she can’t talk openly about Russian election hacking
September 8, 2019
https://www.tampabay.com/florida-po...t-talk-openly-about-russian-election-hacking/

In an op-ed column for the Washington Post published earlier this week, Murphy renewed her objection to the lack of public knowledge about Russian attempts to hack into Florida’s electoral system in 2016.

Murphy is not allowed to share key details she has learned ― the names of the counties, for example ― with the public, she said. Murphy has a problem with this arrangement.

“It’s self-defeating to be given incomplete information and then be required to remain silent about the few facts we do know,” Murphy said.
The piece contained further sharp warnings about election security in 2020:
“If we can’t form a clear picture of past election interference efforts, we won’t learn how best to fend off future attacks,” Murphy wrote.
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Minimalist · Sep 10, 2019

Elections officials flub some basic security tasks

State elections officials struggle with some of the basics of office cybersecurity, according to a new report from cybersecurity auditor NormShield.
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https://www.axios.com/elections-off...sks-f7fb2fb4-0292-4ef1-a2d2-ad9799f07784.html

Minimalist · Sep 10, 2019

mood said: ↑

Russia says Facebook, Google distributed political ads on election day
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Google, Facebook rebuff Russia over political advertising accusation

Google said on Monday that it supported responsible political advertising that complies with local legislation, after Russia accused it of circulating such advertising during local elections at the weekend.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/goog...-over-political-advertising-accusation-530775

guest · Sep 11, 2019

Insecure Likud database holds personal data of a million Israelis
The entries are listed under three categories: “supporters,” “non-supporters,” and “undecided.”
September 9, 2019
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-Electi...l-details-of-a-million-Israelis-report-601079

The Likud Party gathered the personal information and political allegiances of over a million Israeli voters in an unsecure, online database, financial daily TheMarker reported on Monda

According to the report, the database features the personal details, including identification numbers, addresses and telephone numbers, of senior military officials, judges, journalists, politicians and regular citizens. The party relies on the directory to manage its electoral campaign efforts.
Individuals in the mass database were listed under three categories concerning their political stance: “supporters,” “non-supporters” and “undecided.”

Party activists were supposed to use the app, directly accessible via an internet link, to list all voters who show up to cast their ballot at their local polling station on September 17
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guest · Sep 11, 2019

PIT stop: SCRT tallies Swiss e-voting bug bounty submissions
Researchers discovered 16 ‘minor’ vulnerabilities in Swiss Post’s controversial online voting system
September 11, 2019
https://portswigger.net/daily-swig/pit-stop-scrt-tallies-swiss-e-voting-bug-bounty-submissions

Earlier this year, Swiss Post – the country’s national postal service and the organization tasked with overseeing the nation’s online voting program – announced it was inviting hackers to test its e-voting system for flaws.
The ‘public intrusion test’ (PIT) ran from February 25 to March 24. It simulated a real federal vote, during which bug hunters could download their encrypted ballot ‘cards’ and scrutinize the system’s open source code for vulnerabilities.

The vulnerabilities – which included a crafted X-Forwarded-For HTTP header injection bug, along with the discovery of vulnerable TLS cipher-suites and outdated version of the Bootstrap web framework – netted the hackers a total of just $2,000.
Despite the seemingly low turnout figures (and even lower number of valid bugs discovered), SCRT said it was satisfied with the PIT exercise, although the company acknowledged some shortcomings.

“We will publish a corrected version of the source code. Specialists can then check the corrections.
“We plan to make the system with universal verifiability available to the cantons [Swiss regions] for trial operation from 2020. The cantons decide if and when they want to make e-voting available to their citizens.”
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Minimalist · Sep 12, 2019

The election's on: Canadians should watch out for dumbfakes and deepfakes

Dumbfakes and deepfakes are edited or altered videos. In just the past few years, the capability to produce and share these videos has increased exponentially due, in part, to artificial intelligence.

These fake videos are already present in Canadian politics and are even more likely to be created and disseminated during Canada's ongoing election campaign.
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https://techxplore.com/news/2019-09-election-canadians-dumbfakes-deepfakes.html

Minimalist · Sep 14, 2019

Federal judge dismisses voting security lawsuit in Tennessee

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday challenging the security of voting machines in Tennessee's largest county and calling for a switch to a handwritten ballot and a voter-verifiable paper trial.
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https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article235078337.html

guest · Sep 16, 2019

Israel's election on Tuesday will be target of cyber-attacks
September 15, 2019
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-Electi...target-of-cyber-attacks-professor-says-601757

Now right before Israelis go to the polls, due to the proximity of the two elections as well as the immediacy and scale of the threats, it is highly doubtful that Israel has built a digital defense against cyberattacks this time around either, said Dr. Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communications at the University of Haifa.

He told The Jerusalem Post that this Israeli election is likely to be marred by online election interference just like the last election, something that will only be fully understood after Tuesday.

“Today, through social networks, it is possible to spread false rumors, promote ‘fake news,’ incite and radicalize discourse, cause harm to candidates and parties, widen social rifts and plunge election campaigns into an abyss of extremism, distrust, sectarianism and violence,” Weimann said.
A full report will only be issued after Election Day, he said, and “based on the last election five months ago, I don’t think we’ll find that the cyber influence has stopped.”
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guest · Sep 18, 2019

Third of Brits Concerned About Election Interference
September 18, 2019
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/third-brits-concerned-about/

A third of British adults are concerned about hackers interfering in future general elections or referendums, according to new research from SANS Institute.

The global IT training organization polled over 2000 individuals to better understand their concerns about the impact of cyber-related issues on society.
It found that 34% believe cyber-attackers could influence the democratic process in future.
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guest · Sep 18, 2019

Facebook identifies secret campaign to influence voters in Iraq and Ukraine
September 17, 2019
https://thenextweb.com/facebook/201...aign-to-influence-voters-in-iraq-and-ukraine/

Earlier today, Facebook announced it had terminated multiple accounts, pages, and groups belonging to two campaigns targeting voters in Iraq and Ukraine. The move is part of the social giant’s crackdown on “inauthentic behavior.”

In Iraq, Facebook removed 76 accounts, seven Instagram accounts, 120 pages, and a smaller number of groups and events. Analysis of the posts from the suspended profiles shows a focus predominantly on social issues, as well as the complex relationship between Iran and Iraq.
Facebook removed a far larger number of profiles in the Ukraine – 168 personal accounts, plus 149 pages, in addition to 79 groups.

It is, however, a somber reminder that influence campaigns exist everywhere. They target voters from around the world.
For democracy to survive, we need to stamp them out everywhere we find them.
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Facebook: Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior From Iraq and Ukraine

Minimalist · Sep 18, 2019

Election commission says it won’t de-certify voting systems running old versions of Windows

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission has told lawmakers that it will not de-certify certain voting machines using outdated Microsoft Windows systems, a disclosure that highlights the challenge of keeping voting systems secure after a vendor ceases offering support for a product.
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https://www.cyberscoop.com/microsoft-windows-voting-machines-elections-assistance-commission/

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