Avast_Blog_Security News: An elections security progress report: Black Hat edition

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Exploring the latest findings on election security and interference around the world

Twelve Tuesdays from today, the US national elections will take place, and infosec professionals are doing their best to adapt to changing circumstances brought on by both the pandemic and the tense cyber-politics surrounding them.

More states are expanding mail-in voting and planning the necessary infrastructure to distribute and process  paper ballots. State elections officials are also deploying better security measures, banding together to form the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC). Membership in the  information sharing and analysis center has grown considerably since the 2018 election.

As you might expect, the election was a core topic at the virtual Black Hat and DEFCON voting village conferences held in early August. It has become a core feature of “hacker summer camp” to share the latest in election security from the perspective of the professionals doing the work. We will weave in some of the presentations and unpack some of the research behind Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s statement that “What Russia did in 2016 was an act of cyber warfare and shows why a paper trail is essential.” Speier, who represents much of Silicon Valley, gave a keynote at the event. 

But before we dig into this year’s findings on election interference around the world, let’s review what is going on with election security since we last covered the topic during the March primaries. There have been numerous events in the past week that have brought new context to the intersection of technology and our elections. First and foremost is this story in the New York Times which describes the conflicts in the current administration between the President and the intelligence agencies over Russian influence. Then, over the weekend, we saw during the Belarus election a deliberate attempt to turn off connectivity during their national elections. 
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