The greatest threat to the 2020 presidential election may not be hacking of voting systems, but the hacking of Americans' faith in their elections, security insiders said at a cybersecurity summit in Washington, D.C. this week.
During the 2016 presidential election between Hillary Clinton and then-candidate Donald Trump, Russian-backed agents launched a sweeping attempt to penetrate and disrupt the U.S. election system from all angles, including sowing discord through social media and probing state voter registration databases, according to intelligence community assessments and Senate Intelligence reports.
"Forty percent of voters will feel a vote was not fair if their candidate loses," said David Becker, executive director and founder of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research.While shaken voter confidence is of paramount concern, security experts warned of very real ongoing threats to the election process in the U.S. and other global democracies.
For PACS, social media platforms, and news organizations, the firm has observed that"actors target and try to obtain info for hack and leak campaigns and attempts to sway public opinion," she said. While states have fallback plans, including same-day registration in some states, it could cause some confusion and delay at the polls.
During the recent 2018 midterm elections, a newly empowered U.S. Cyber Command temporarily cut off the internet access for the Internet Research Agency, the Kremlin-linked"troll farm" that spread millions of divisive messages using false online personas before, during, and after the previous presidential election. It was a warning sign, and a proof of concept.
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