Category Archives: election data breach

4 Ways Election Integrity = Hacker Proof in the rhododendron state

West Virigina is securing its voting maschines from hackers by:

  • West Virginia Air National Guard, with top secret clearance, actively tracks hackers
  • West Virigina Secretary of State is prioritizing data security
  • Intelligence Fusion Center, a nexus of state and federal law-enforcement and intelligence officials who handle threats ranging from floods to cyberattacks.
  • State law requires that hand-countable paper ballots be used in every election

New York Times | How West Virginia Is Trying to…

Regulatory TREND. State Secretary of State Imposes Voting Machine Requirements in the Mountain Laurel Flower State

Pennsylvania Secretary of State imposed a 12/31/2019 deadline for:

  • each county in Pennsylvania
  • to order new voting machines
  • that keep a paper trail of each ballot

The total estimated cost for all counties: Between $95 million and $153 million

Penn Live | Pa. says counties must have new voting machines – with paper trails – for next presidential election

 

Funding Voting Machine Data Security in the orange Blossom State

Florida legislature authorized the spending of  $1.9 million in federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) money for:

  • Counties to buy devices & pay for a monthly monitoring service that looks for hacker attacks
  • Each sensor costs $8,000
  • Monthly monitoring is $1,300/month
  • Funding will last only for 12 months
  • Funding was not provided to protect the statewide database of voter information
  • Funding doe snot include the Governor’s request for 5 cyber security experts 

Tampa Bay Times | Despite…

FBI Clears Data Researcher that Found 6.7 Million Voter Files. Cherokee Rose State Bill Criminalizes Data Researcher's Research.

Background: A data security researcher at a public university in Georgia discovered the personal information of 6.7 million Georgia voters unprotected online. 

The legislative Response: Gerogia’s SB 315 (2018) 

What is the legislative goal? Prevent computer snooping by requiring permission at the outset before seeking unprotecting data maintained by a government or business

What does the tech community say? Fix this bill by only criminalizing computer snooping with maiclious intent

Atlanta…

Regulatory Trend. Keystone State Plan to Prevent Voter Hacking + Local Government Mandate

Governor of Pennsylvania ordered counties to buy voting machines that also leave a paper trail to protect against hacking.

Pennsylvania is providing counties with this much funding to update voting machines: $0

Governing | To Prevent Hacking, Pennsylvania Will Create Voting Paper Trail

AP | Pennsylvania to require voting machines with paper backup

Anatomy of a Election Cyber Security Agency. 3 Goals of the Agency.

The Prime Miniter of Sweden announced the immediate formation of an agency charged with protecting the integrity of Seden’s elections. 

The new agency will be cahrged with:

  • “psychological defence by identifying, analysing, and responding to external influence campaigns”
  • will not hesitate to expose those who meddle in Swedish elections
  • in coordination with the agency, there will be increased funding for Swedish intelligence and cyber-defence services to monitor external threats
  • the agency…

Lege Trend. Cybersecure Election in the Buckeye State. 3 Key Elements of the bills.

Ohio Legislature is set to consider bills to strengthen cybersecurity for their election system by:

  • Establishing a Cybersecurity director within the Secretary of State administration
    • the Director would be responsible for recommendations to keep elections secure
  • Establishing a cyber-security advisory council appointed by the Secretary of State and made up of:
    • business community
    • technology community
    • law enforcement
    • voting advocates
    •  elections officials from both political parties

    • …

Election Trend. Risk Limiting Audits for Elections. +1 More More State Adopts the Policy. Procurement & Legislation Required.

State: Colorado

What is risk limiting audit for elections? 

  • require all jurisdictions to have a sound ballot accounting process
  • require use a batch size of one ballot
  • require that a cast vote record exist and be available and retrievable for each individual ballot

How do risk limiting audits combat election hacking?

  • The number of ballots to select initially is calculated by using the risk limit and the margin of the contests
  • Ballots are next randomly selected
  • Each ballot’s vote…

Election Trend. Social Media Disclosures. Read the Bill.

A bipartisan bill in Congress seeks to require social media companies to disclose the same campaign related information that is required of radio and tv.

Which social media companies would be affected? websites, apps, search engines, social media and ad networks with over 50 million unique visitors

What would be trigger amount for dislcosures?  if a person or entity spends at least $500 on political ads a year

What disclosures would be required?

  •  copies of ads
  • information about groups…