Voter registration data in most states are public by law. What happens when voter registration data are compiled and parsed with data from internet browsing, shopping and social media? It’s a well-known fact that our foreign adversaries have attempted to influence and breach our election systems. We believe that they are trying to do so again and we need to stay two steps ahead of them in order to solve problems that may arise in securing voter data and the integrity of our election system. While we can all agree that elections systems are vulnerable, there is much more to the story. Ideas such as the Securing America’s Voting Equipment (SAVE) Act, proposed by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), would allow election officials access to classified information and would designate election systems as critical infrastructure. Designating these systems as critical infrastructure will trigger additional cybersecurity controls and require oversight at many levels, state and federal.
But if we’re serious about protecting our democracy through our election cyber infrastructure, we need to put much stronger safeguards in place throughout the election cycle, long before voters head to the polls.
Both major political parties have invested millions of dollars in data and voter information to encourage people to vote and convince voters to identify with their candidates. Various other campaigns, third-party organizations and super PACS have access to this information, all supplied by vendors and data brokers who hold this information and extrapolate data points for voter identification. It’s combined with data about our likes and dislikes and shopping habits, and then used for social media targeting. We know the Democratic National Committee was breached in the last election cycle; this time, it could very well be the Republican National Committee.
Full Article: Congress, don’t miss the mark on election security | TheHill.