Can we safeguard the election infrastructure from cyber attacks?

70 percent of security professionals believe their local governments cannot adequately safeguard the election infrastructure against domestic and international cyber attacks. In addition, 75 percent believe that the spread of disinformation is the greatest threat to election integrity, according to a Venafi survey.

The survey evaluated the opinions of 485 IT security professionals attending RSA Conference 2020.

“Many of the cyber attacks targeting elections come from machines, which can automatically spread information and direct attacks on the systems that count votes,” said Kevin Bocek, vice president of security strategy and threat intelligence at Venafi.

“Security professionals are rightly concerned about cyber threats impacting the democratic process. Organizations may have difficulty curbing deceptive or inaccurate information from people; however, they can keep their machines from spreading malicious disinformation.”

Bocek continued: “The election season is already in process and COVID-19 adds a new layer of security complications. Cyber attackers may take advantage of this period of uncertainty to undermine further public confidence by spreading disinformation.

“As a result, it’s not surprising security professionals are concerned that governments won’t be able to safeguard election data.”