By Carlos Winston | January 24, 2020

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says that they will give notification to state officials when hacks are detected in the 2020 election.

The change in transparency may provide comfort to those who felt that there was a lack of communication on the issue in the previous elections.

The original policy was heavily criticized post-election in 2016. Before the changes were made, the protocol was to notify the county or counties that were directly affected by cyber attacks.

So basically, if the county held responsibility over the voting equipment used during the attack, they were the only ones told. This policy was kept in place in order to “protect the privacy of the hacking victims,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

While many protocols put in place to maintain a consistent level of order, they may contain flaws that interrupt the intended benefits. In this specific case, the lack of transparency could disrupt developments that could be made in order to make improvements in local security.

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While both parties did agree on the criticism, election officials also noted that the process of sharing information was not done in a fast enough manner.

The FBI stated in a report from CNET, “Cyber intrusions affecting election infrastructure have the potential to cause significant negative impacts on the integrity of elections.”

This is why system security is imperative in this election, especially when you consider the sheer amount of attacks in the 2016 election. It seems that the government is already taking steps to make the 2020 election more secure by placing large social media platforms under investigation.

“Election security is a major issue for the 2020 US presidential campaign, with the federal government looking to avoid cyberattacks similar to those that plagued the 2016 election. Russian hackers successfully infiltrated state election databases, as well as voter databases in two Florida counties. The Department of Homeland Security concluded that cyberattacks didn’t result in altered votes or tampering with voting machines.” [CNET.com]

Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a lawmaker for Florida, spoke about the changes. She was involved in a situation where she had to request a briefing to find out about breaches within the state’s election system.

“I will continue to push for federal officials to provide more information to the voting public when foreign powers interfere with our democracy…Our citizens will then be in a position to check their voter registration data to confirm it wasn’t tampered with and to hold accountable state and local officials who fail to protect election infrastructure.”

While some say that the change is not enough, we can only hope that the 2020 election will be made more secure and can ease those involved in the voting process. The next step in transparency will likely notify more individuals who are affected by system hacks.

Do you feel enough is being done to make the next election more transparent and secure?

 

This piece originally appeared on WayneDupree.com and is used by permission.

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