Americans Prepare To Safeguard 2020 Vote
Americans are preparing more than ever to safeguard voting as the nation looks ahead to the Democratic primaries and the general election next canada goose outlet online uk year.
What no one can say for certain today is whether all the work may turn out to be superfluous or whether it’ll canada goose outlet store usa be enough.
National security officials have been clear about two things: First, that the Russian government attacked the 2016 election with a wave of “active measures” documented in prosecution documents and the final report of former Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller.
And second, that those measures have never stopped and that interference is likely in coming elections.
With that understanding, the United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars since 2016 to change practices at every level of government.
A lot has canada goose outlet seattle changed
More states are buying more voting machines that yield paper ballots to hedge against cyber cheap canada goose dangers and make it easier to audit results after the fact.
The Department of Homeland Security is working more canada goose outlet factory closely canada goose black friday sale than ever with state and local elections officials to raise awareness about cybersecurity dangers and new amazon uk canada goose practices.
And the national security establishment says it has increased the tempo of its operations, many of which remain clandestine, to dissuade foreign governments such as Russia’s from attempting to run a playbook like that of 2016.
Influence specialists launched a wave of cyberattacks against political targets across the United States and released some of the material they stole to embarrass their victims, mainly Democrats.
Meanwhile, they also sought to amplify agitation online with false accounts, disinformation and the now infamous “fake news.”
Facebook, Twitter, Google and other canada goose hybridge lite uk Big Tech companies say they’re remaking their own internal practices cheap canada goose chilliwack bomber to curtail a foreign nation’s ability to use their services to spread disinformation or aggravate political differences among users.
Representatives from canada goose factory outlet toronto location those companies met last week with officials from the FBI, DHS and the intelligence community to compare notes about election security, one of Facebook’s top cybersecurity officers said.
And Canada Goose online that followed the companies’ decisions to reveal what they’ve called state sponsored influence campaigns in real time, in the latest example of shutting goose outlet canada down accounts that had been connected with a government information operation.
If that keeps up through 2020, users around the world could get a much different understanding about which governments might be trying to achieve which aims through fake accounts, disinformation and agitation.
The name of the game
Will it all be enough? Security experts and supporters of further changes say the news is not all good.
For all the new voting equipment expected to be fielded by Election Day 2020, roughly 16 million Americans are expected to cast votes that leave no paper record, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.
Many machines also likely will continue canada goose outlet location to run on obsolete software, further complicating the potential cybersecurity exposure. One hacker who experimented with an election machine at a conference in Las Vegas told NPR he wouldn’t trust the equipment’s software to run his toaster.
2020 canada goose factory outlet vancouver Election: Secure Your Vote
There’s also no guarantee that an influence canada goose outlet campaign targeting the United States in 2020 might look like the last big one.
It could rely more on spreading sophisticated fake media than on the past campaign’s comparatively simple posts and memes. Its political dimensions canada goose outlet ottawa could be different in terms of the candidates or parties who stand to benefit. The nations involved could be different too.
President Trump already has charged China with trying to make a case against him among Americans because Beijing has wearied of the trade war with Washington. The Chinese have sponsored some overt messaging that makes plain their unhappiness will that include a https://www.thebookstop.biz clandestine effort, too?
In 2016, Russia’s interference campaign was aimed at helping Trump and hurting his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Since then, canada goose clothing uk Russia and China have grown strategically closer. Russia also has become a big booster for China in its official messaging, according to one report from the Alliance for Securing Democracy. election.
Fighting the next war
The names of the players might not be the only difference in 2020 as compared with the earlier election. The techniques might be different, too.
For example, Paul Barrett of New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights warned in a report that influence mongers might make greater use of different social platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp.