Cybersecurity doubts may spook voters in future elections

The doubts are sharpest when it comes to the ability of state and local election authorities to defend against a cyberattack.

A new poll says growing concerns over cybersecurity could lead to millions of Americans staying home during the 2018 midterm elections and the subsequent 2020 presidential election.

More than 1 in 4 American voters will consider not voting in upcoming elections due to concerns over cybersecurity, according to a new poll published Wednesday by the U.S. cybersecurity firm Carbon Black.

That’s a jump of nearly 10 percentage points from last year’s poll.

The doubts are sharpest when it comes to the ability of state and local election authorities to defend against a cyberattack. Less than half of voters (45 percent) trust local authorities on cybersecurity, a number reflecting last month’s report that “election-related systems in 21 states that were targeted” by Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential election.

Yet, less than half (47 percent) of American voters believed the 2016 election was influenced by foreign entities. That’s a sharp break with the U.S. intelligence community, but is in line with President Donald Trump. The president has repeatedly cast doubts on the idea that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

However,  45 percent of American voters said they believe Russian operators “will be back” to influence the 2018 and 2020 elections.

On Tuesday, it was reported and confirmed that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., coordinated meetings with Russian officials in an attempt to get dirt on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

State and local officials resisted federal aid during the 2016 election, according to then-President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who testified in front of Congress last month.

DHS designated election systems as critical infrastructure prior to the 2016 election.

“To my disappointment, the reaction to a critical infrastructure designation, at least from those who spoke up, ranged from neutral to negative,” Johnson said. “Those who expressed negative views stated that running elections in this country was the sovereign and exclusive responsibility of the states, and they did not want federal intrusion, a federal takeover, or federal regulation of that process. This was a profound misunderstanding of what a critical infrastructure designation would mean, which I tried to clarify for them.”

Illinois politicians including Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin have pressed local election authorities on cybersecurity questions regarding federal aid and cooperation and security audits. So far no responses have been recorded.

A California county wants to hire Tina Peters to help run its elections

After her prison sentence for felony election-related crimes was commuted, Peters is poised to once again administer critical election duties.

AI is getting better at election facts, but voters shouldn’t rely on it

House intel bill includes provisions on state and local threat intelligence, election security, AI

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure