Expert Interview on 2018 Election Security-2

As we head into the final days before the 2018 elections, the media coverage of election security has never been greater. Sadly, much of the news is not very encouraging. For example:

• Time Magazine: ‘Our House Is on Fire.’ Elections Officials Worry About Midterms Security –
• The New York Times: The Crisis of Election Security
• AP News: Expert panel calls for sweeping election security measures
• CNET: Election security is a mess, and the cleanup won’t arrive by the midterms

Indeed, just this week, Vice President Mike Pence accused the Chinese Government of meddling in the upcoming US elections, although some cybersecurity experts disagree.

The administration’s own secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen, said: “We currently have no indication that a foreign adversary intends to disrupt our election infrastructure.

“We know they [the Chinese] have the capability and we know they have the will. So we’re constantly on alert to watch. But what we see with China right now are the influence campaigns, the more traditional, longstanding, holistic influence campaigns,” Nielsen said on Tuesday at a Washington Post cybersecurity conference.

Others are much more concerned with Russian election interference – again.

Brief History on U.S. Election Cybersecurity Coverage

Going back more than two years, this blog covered this election cybersecurity topic from numerous angles. In March of 2016, I was one of the first to ask: “Could the Election Be Hacked?”

On the weekend before the 2016 vote, I wrote, “Trust the Vote: Here’s Why.”  [Note: this piece was written when most people thought Hillary Clinton would win.]

After the 2016 election, we discussed views on the trouble with recounts in the name of hacking and later recapped the good, bad and ugly with those vote recounts that did occur.

In January 2017, (Read more...)