National: Facebook data misuse and voter manipulation back in the frame with latest Cambridge Analytica leaks | Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch

More details are emerging about the scale and scope of disgraced data company Cambridge Analytica’s activities in elections around the world — via a cache of internal documents that’s being released by former employee and self-styled whistleblower, Brittany Kaiser. The now shut down data modelling company, which infamously used stolen Facebook data to target voters for President Donald Trump’s campaign in the 2016 U.S. election, was at the center of the data misuse scandal that, in 2018, wiped billions off Facebook’s share price and contributed to a $5BN FTC fine for the tech giant last summer. However plenty of questions remain, including where, for whom and exactly how Cambridge Analytica and its parent entity SCL Elections operated; as well as how much Facebook’s leadership knew about the dealings of the firm that was using its platform to extract data and target political ads — helped by some of Facebook’s own staff. Certain Facebook employees were referring to Cambridge Analytica as a “sketchy” company as far back as September 2015 — yet the tech giant only pulled the plug on platform access after the scandal went global in 2018. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also continued to maintain that he only personally learned about CA from a December 2015 Guardian article, which broke the story that Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign was using psychological data based on research covering tens of millions of Facebook users, harvested largely without permission. (It wasn’t until March 2018 that further investigative journalism blew the lid off the story — turning it into a global scandal.)

National: DHS issues bulletin warning of potential Iranian cyberattack | Maggie Miller/The Hill

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a bulletin this week through its National Terrorism Advisory System warning of Iran’s ability to carry out cyberattacks with “disruptive effects” against critical U.S. infrastructure. In the bulletin, sent in the wake of the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani, DHS noted that while there is currently “no information indicating a specific, credible threat to the Homeland,” Iran does have the ability to attack the U.S. in cyberspace. “Previous homeland-based plots have included, among other things, scouting and planning against infrastructure targets and cyber enabled attacks against a range of U.S.- based targets,” DHS wrote in the bulletin. The agency noted that “Iran maintains a robust cyber program and can execute cyber attacks against the United States. Iran is capable, at a minimum, of carrying out attacks with temporary disruptive effects against critical infrastructure in the United States.” Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf tweeted Saturday that the bulletin was intended to “inform & reassure the American public, state/local governments & private partners that DHS is actively monitoring & preparing for any specific, credible threat, should one arise.”

Alabama: Concerns over new voting machines in Mobile & Baldwin counties | James Gordon/WPMI

Alabama voters head back to the polls in less than two months for the primary elections. NBC 15 News investigated whether hackers can get into the new touch screen machines you’ll use in Mobile and Baldwin county. Alabama’s Secretary of State John Merrill answered some of our questions as to the security of the machines in the next election. Both Mobile and Baldwin County voting machines that were more than a decade old have been replaced with Express Vote machines and the state has established what’s called a “cyber navigator program.” “We want to make sure we are doing everything we can to help all 67 counties in the state, ” said Merrill.

Arkansas: Election gear on Pulaski County’s to-do list | Kat Stromquist/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

As an election year begins, Pulaski County has yet to complete its planned purchase of new voting equipment to replace an inventory of aging machines. Some ambiguity around funding has slowed the process for the state’s largest county by population, tightening timelines in advance of November’s general election that includes the vote for the presidency. Officials learned last fall that they won’t need to provide a match to access about $1.56 million in state funding to replace dated voting equipment, but election commissioners said in December that they’re not expecting a buy until at least February. Commission chairwoman Evelyn Gomez said the board prefers to first ask the Quorum Court — likely next month, though an appearance is not scheduled — if the county can dedicate any carryover funds to the purchase. “We can’t move forward until we have a budget,” Gomez, who is a Republican appointee, said at a Dec. 20 commission meeting. “We cannot contract with money we don’t have.” Pulaski County is among 21 counties set to receive a total of $8.2 million in state funds to replace voting equipment that’s past its prime. Allocated through Act 808 of 2019, the money came from a property tax relief trust fund surplus.

Florida: Despite Improvements, Concerns Remain About 2020 Election Security | Denise Royal/WUSF

With the presidency on the ballot this year, there are real fears of attempts by foreign powers to interfere in Florida’s election. Increasing election security is a priority for local, state and federal officials. Millions of tax dollars are being spent to shore up election security and to reassure voters that their votes will count. In addition to the cyber-threats, Florida has a history of close elections, and trouble with recounting close votes. This year, Florida’s county officials are on the front lines to identify problems. The Florida Roundup took a close look at election security and what problems remain in this crucial year for voters. Tammy Jones, president of Florida Supervisors of Elections, and Ion Sancho, the former elections supervisor for Leon County, joined hosts Tom Hudson and Melissa Ross.

Idaho: Canyon County approves purchasing $3 million election equipment from Hart Intercivic | Rachel Spacek/Idaho Press

The Canyon County Board of Commissioners has approved a roughly $3 million contract for new voting equipment. After two separate meetings Monday, the commission in a 2-1 vote approved the contract between the Canyon County Elections Office and Texas-based Hart InterCivic. Commissioners Pam White and Tom Dale voted in favor of approving the contract, and Commissioner Leslie Van Beek voted against it. The contract includes the purchase of an entirely new voting system, including polling pads, ballot distribution machines and precinct counters. The system would eliminate most of the human error that comes with having election poll workers distribute ballots, said Haley Hicks, elections supervisor for Canyon County. The equipment and contract with Hart will cost the county just over $3 million. Canyon County has historically had multiple problems during elections, including late nights of ballot counting — the county finished counting ballots after 3 a.m. one election night in 2018 and at 7 a.m. the next morning in 2017. In 2018, the elections office forgot to count 39 ballots from overseas citizens and active members of the military on election night.

New Jersey: Lawmaker Backs Away from Allowing Early Tabulation of Mail-In Ballots | Nancy Solomon/WNYC

A New Jersey lawmaker is backing away from a proposal that would have allowed the state’s 21 counties to count vote-by-mail ballots one week before Election Day. The provision is buried in a bill sponsored by state Sen. James Beach (D-Cherry Hill). The stated purpose of the bill is to give county clerks more time to prepare for the 2020 primary. But the provision allowing each county’s Board of Elections to open and count mail-in ballots a week early has drawn the ire of some progressive activists. “We’re calling it legalized cheating,” said Yael Niv, president of the Good Government Coalition of New Jersey. County elections staff are often closely tied to party machines in the state. Under the proposed legislation, early results are supposed to be confidential. But Niv said she’s worried that candidates backed by the machine could gain an edge and better direct their resources if county employees share the early vote totals. “They have a whole week to send their canvassers, to send their pamphlets, and the money, and the ads and everything that they need to those places,” Niv said.

National: Election vendors executives head to the Hill | Tim Starks/Politico

he House Administration Committee will start off the new year with a bang on Thursday when it convenes a hearing with the presidents of the three largest election technology vendors. Testifying on the first panel of the hearing, the committee told MC, are Tom Burt, president and CEO of Election Systems & Software; John Poulos, president and CEO of Dominion Voting Systems; and Julie Mathis, president and CFO of Hart InterCivic. The major vendors have sent lower-level representatives to congressional hearings in the past, but this is the first time that all three top executives have testified together, a House aide told MC. The timing is auspicious: the presidential primary season, which begins in just a few weeks, represents a high-profile test of many states’ new paper-backed electronic voting machines. Vendor oversight has been a top concern of voting security experts and activists, because the three largest firms have historically shunned transparency, downplayed security concerns and threatened competitors with lawsuits. House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) first told POLITICO that she was planning this hearing in August, after a bipartisan group of activist organizations pressed her panel and its Senate counterpart to scrutinize the vendors more closely. After vendor executives testify, the Administration Committee will hear from a trio of experts, according to the witness list shared with MC. They are Liz Howard from the Brennan Center for Justice, Georgetown University professor Matt Blaze and University of Florida professor Juan Gilbert.

North Carolina: Ignoring Warning Signs: Officials Approve Vulnerable Voting Machines | Gabriella Novello/WhoWhatWhy

Election officials know very well that using outdated and costly touchscreen voting machines — which are susceptible to hacking and other foul play — will likely lead to programming issues and cause long lines during the 2020 election that will ultimately drive voters away from the polls. Though more states are moving toward hand-marked paper ballots, most of those ballots will still be counted by machines. In other states — some of which could play a crucial role this year — election officials have ignored calls by election security experts to steer clear of problematic touchscreen machines altogether, and are rushing to approve even more. In North Carolina, despite overwhelming opposition from voters and election security experts, the State Board of Elections (NCSBE) bypassed a certification process to approve new touchscreen voting machines by Election Systems & Software (ES&S). At the same time, it  expressed “disappointment” in the company for misleading the board about whether it could provide enough of the voting machines that were certified in August. Critics of the decision argue that election officials rushed to approve the modification request after the board was forced to consider a more expensive voting machine just one month after the initial certification in August because ES&S said that it could not supply North Carolina with all the machines the state needed.

International: Fresh Cambridge Analytica leak ‘shows global manipulation is out of control’ | Carole Cadwalladr/The Guardian

An explosive leak of tens of thousands of documents from the defunct data firm Cambridge Analytica is set to expose the inner workings of the company that collapsed after the Observer revealed it had misappropriated 87 million Facebook profiles. More than 100,000 documents relating to work in 68 countries that will lay bare the global infrastructure of an operation used to manipulate voters on “an industrial scale” are set to be released over the next months. It comes as Christopher Steele, the ex-head of MI6’s Russia desk and the intelligence expert behind the so-called “Steele dossier” into Trump’s relationship with Russia, said that while the company had closed down, the failure to properly punish bad actors meant that the prospects for manipulation of the US election this year were even worse. The release of documents began on New Year’s Day on an anonymous Twitter account, @HindsightFiles, with links to material on elections in Malaysia, Kenya and Brazil. The documents were revealed to have come from Brittany Kaiser, an ex-Cambridge Analytica employee turned whistleblower, and to be the same ones subpoenaed by Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Bangladesh: BNP urges Election Commission to roll back Electronic Voting Machine plan | Dhaka Tribune

BNP has urged the Election Commission to shelve its plan to use Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the upcoming elections to two Dhaka city corporations. The party said EVM is an ill-motivated government project to destroy people’s voting rights, reports UNB. “The Election Commission’s decision to use the EVMs in the polls to Dhaka south and north city corporations is part of an evil plan to implement a silent project of killing people’s voting rights by using the technology in the future election in which the government is changed,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said on Sunday. He said: “BNP thinks the decision to use the machine in Bangladesh’s election system is a serious conspiracy. We hope the Election Commission will take steps for holding the election through traditional ballot papers cancelling its decision to conduct the voting through the EVM so that people can freely exercise their right to franchise.”

Taiwan: China uses Taiwan for AI target practice to influence elections | Philip Sherwell/The Sunday Times

China has already deployed its expertise in artificial intelligence to erect a surveillance state, power its economy and develop its military. Now Taiwan’s cyber-security chiefs have identified signs that Beijing is using AI to interfere in an overseas election for the first time. In the run-up to its general and presidential elections on Saturday, Taiwan has detected what appear to be experiments with AI-generated messaging amid disinformation unleashed by Beijing and its proxies. This could presage China’s export of its Orwellian tools for manipulation and control to influence other democracies. If Chinese programmers can teach intelligent machines to mimic the language of voters — learning idioms, slang and mindsets via elaborate algorithms — it will be a game-changer, spreading fake news and disinformation through anonymous social media accounts at viral speeds. “We believe we are seeing China testing the use of artificial intelligence for the first time in their influence operations in this election,” said Tzeng Yi-suo, director of the cyber-warfare division at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defence and Security Research.