In the wake of a significant security breach involving the theft of the entire voter roll from the DC Board of Elections, George Chedzhemov, SVP of Client Services, and Tyler Young, CISO of BigID, have raised urgent concerns regarding the integrity of local, state, and federal election systems. Tyler Young, CISO of BigID
Adversaries will look to cause disruption to our election process, as they have done for decades. What makes cyber attacks on our election infrastructure critical, is that oftentimes elections are run by state and local government organizations that typically are less funded and aware of cyber threats. It's important that the CISA and leading Cyber Security companies work diligently over the next year to ensure we are able to have an election free from adversarial influences. George Chedzhemov, SVP Of Client Services
Recent election system breaches, such as the theft of the entire voter roll from the DC Board of Elections, present unique threats and challenges for local, state and federal election officials, as well as cybersecurity officials.
These include:
Targeted Disinformation Campaigns: With the potential exposure of the entire voter roll, there's a risk that this information could be used to target specific voters with political disinformation campaigns. Personal data could enable highly tailored, targeted, and potentially much more sophisticated and effective misinformation efforts.
Fraudulent PAC Campaigns: The exposed data could also be used to create fake Political Action Committees (PACs). These fraudulent "PACs" could then attempt to solicit contributions from naive voters by exploiting their political beliefs or affiliations, allowing for execution of sophisticated financial scams.
Voter Impersonation: While much more challenging to execute, there's still a possible risk of voter impersonation, albeit on a smaller scale. Unscrupulous individuals could potentially attempt to use stolen voter information to cast fraudulent absentee ballots by mail or even attempt to vote in person, though this would require overcoming various safeguards embedded in the voting process.