Election Security: Protecting the Foundation of the Democracy (S1E9)

2020 will go down in history books with two dominating topics: COVID and the presidential election. This interview is part one of a two-part series that will look at securing the voting process.

We have experts from state governments, academia, and the world of technology and cybersecurity give opinions, as well as predictions, as to what will happen in the election. The main elements of part one of this election s eries are the role of audits and the function of information sharing.

The conversation starts with Dan Wallach observing that paper ballots are more secure than electronic. This is one of the reasons he is optimistic about the increase in mail ballots – he thinks it will improve security. When it comes to auditing, the paper process leaves the best trail for auditors. This may be one of the few areas where enhancements in technology do not give a significant advantage.

The discussion moved on to the multiplicity of threats that people who run elections face. Justin Herring brings up an interesting point when he says that election security entails a “whole series of distributed networks.” The two cybersecurity experts from McAfee and Okta opened about a Multi-State Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) that is dedicated to distributing information about cyber threats to the election process.

To view this webinar: Election Security: Protecting The Foundation of Democracy.

Download a Mission Brief of this Presentation

Featured Speakers:

• Justin Herring, Executive Deputy Superintendent, NY Department of Financial Services
• Justin Berardino, Operations Manager, Orange County, CA Registrar of Voters
• Dan Wallach, Professor, Computer Science, Rice University
• Sumit Sehgal, Chief Technical Strategist, GHE at McAfee
• Marc Rogers, Executive Director, Cybersecurity Strategy, Okta