New York became the first state to require banks, insurance companies, and other financial services institutions to create and maintain cybersecurity programs.
When Americans go to the polls Nov. 8, they expect their votes to be secret and secure. But recent hacks of two state voter databases make some question that expectation. One report said it would be easy for hackers to access voting systems, but many state and industry officials are confident in their security. Ballots […]
It wouldn’t be very hard for a hacker to access U.S. election systems, according to a recent report by the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, titled “Hacking Elections is Easy.” “Every four years, during the presidential election, the same stories re-emerge acknowledging that the e-voting systems are vulnerable to the same old attacks, without any change in the security or oversight of the systems,” James Scott and Drew Spaniel write in the report.
Despite hacks against the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Arizona and Illinois voter databases, many state and industry officials feel confident in the security of elections systems in the upcoming election.
Military and overseas citizens face extra challenges when voting, and the threat of ballot hacking shouldn’t be one of them. Overseas voters have the option of emailing their ballots, which increase the likelihood that they could be hacked.
States across the country are using innovative voting technologies to improve access, shorten wait times, and enable easier reporting of results. Alaska, Arizona, Iowa, California, and Minnesota all have new approaches.
About 10 states have reached out to DHS’s Office of Cybersecurity and Communications to ask questions and provide feedback on its cybersecurity services, according to Neil Jenkins, director of the Enterprise Performance Management Office at DHS. He said there has been an uptick in outreach because of the impending election.
Flint Waters, the chief information officer of Wyoming, is leaving public service on Sept. 23 to join Google in early October. Since 2011, Waters has helped the state transition from state-owned data centers to Google’s cloud services.
Vice President Joe Biden announced $100 million in scholarships to those who are underrepresented in the technology workforce and talked about the importance of education for information technology jobs.
As the Internet of Things becomes increasingly prevalent, the government will play an important role in enabling and regulating how the industry will develop, according to panelists at a National Telecommunications and Information Administration workshop. They listed a number of areas in which that advice can take shape.
