{"id":213013,"date":"2016-10-28T15:40:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T19:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=213013"},"modified":"2016-10-28T18:04:52","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T22:04:52","slug":"as-americans-vote-will-hackers-pounce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/10\/as-americans-vote-will-hackers-pounce\/","title":{"rendered":"As Americans vote, will hackers pounce?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tScience & Tech\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tAs Americans vote, will hackers pounce?\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\tLaura Colarusso\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Correspondent\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tPanelists at Kennedy School discuss DNC attacks and wider vulnerabilities\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\t\t

In late April, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) suspected that something was wrong with their network and called in the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to investigate. A few weeks later, after routine testing, the suspicions were confirmed: The committee had been hacked by the Russians.<\/p>\n

The DNC\u2019s system \u201clit up like a Christmas tree,\u201d said Dmitri Alperovitch, CrowdStrike\u2019s chief technology officer. The culprits were bad actors CrowdStrike had seen before and given nicknames. \u201cCozy Bear,\u201d Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service, had been attacking the DNC since the summer of 2015. \u201cFancy Bear,\u201d which refers to Russia\u2019s military intelligence unit, had started its infiltration shortly before CrowdStrike did its test.<\/p>\n

As DNC documents were leaked throughout the summer and into the fall, the episode put the United States on notice that Vladimir Putin\u2019s government is intent on influencing the 2016 election, Alperovitch said during a panel discussion at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). That could mean a couple of things, he said. Russia might try to hack voting machines or it could mount a disinformation campaign to discredit the eventual results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundamental objective here by the Russians is not necessarily to get one person or another elected as president,\u201d said Alperovitch. \u201cThe fundamental objective is actually much more nefarious, which is to undermine the very idea of a free and fair election \u2014 the cornerstone of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decentralized nature of the U.S. vote should protect against a widespread intrusion, said Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan advocacy group. Each of the 9,000 election jurisdictions across the country has its own systems and procedures, meaning no single point of failure could disrupt the tally nationwide.<\/p>\n

Additionally, many jurisdictions have mitigation systems that would help election officials reconstruct voters\u2019 intent if electronic voting machines break down or are compromised by an attack. At least 75 percent of voters casting ballots between now and Nov. 8 will do so on machines that have either a paper ballot or a paper backup.<\/p>\n

\"Moderator
Moderator and director of the Belfer Center’s Cyber Security Project Michael Sulmeyer (from left), Pamela Smith, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Ben Buchanan at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. \u201cThe fundamental objective [of the hack] … is to undermine the very idea of a free and fair election,” said Alperovitch. Photo by Sarah Silbiger<\/figcaption><\/figure>However, five states \u2014 Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, and South Carolina \u2014 have no paper trail whatsoever. Another nine, including swing state Pennsylvania, have some jurisdictions that rely on paperless voting.<\/p>\n

Voting isn\u2019t the only vulnerability. Every state has a computerized voter registration database that could be susceptible to hacking. Already this year, two states \u2014 Arizona and Illinois \u2014 have seen their registration systems breached. The questions now, according to Smith, include: Can records of who is registered to vote be tampered with or deleted? And, if so, how does that affect the election?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe breaches \u2026 in June and July of the voter registration systems coupled with the DNC hack of the emails really brought a lot of people up short and made them realize this is not so much theoretical,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThis is happening. We need to check our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security is collaborating with election officials in 40 states to provide vulnerability scans and cyber-risk assessments. Yet U.S. voting systems are not classified as critical infrastructure, a designation that would allow for enhanced security.<\/p>\n

No less urgent, said the\u00a0Belfer Center\u2019s Ben Buchanan, is the need for policymakers to assert consequences for bad actors intent on disrupting American voting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States needs to come out after this election and establish some kind of deterrent policy,\u201d said Buchanan, a postdoctoral fellow with the center\u2019s Cyber Security Project. \u201cIf you start to mess with the integrity of an election machine itself [or] the integrity of a voter registration database or of a dissemination system, we will take that very seriously, and we will retaliate. We consider elections so fundamental to our democracy that we are ready to defend them with force or whatever is required.”<\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tLaura Colarusso\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Correspondent\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2016-10-28\">\n\t\t\tOctober 28, 2016\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t4 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tPanelists at Kennedy School discuss DNC attacks and wider vulnerabilities\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>In late April, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) suspected that something was wrong with their network and called in the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to investigate. A few weeks later, after routine testing, the suspicions were confirmed: The committee had been hacked by the Russians.<\/p>\n<p>The DNC\u2019s system \u201clit up like a Christmas tree,\u201d said Dmitri Alperovitch, CrowdStrike\u2019s chief technology officer. The culprits were bad actors CrowdStrike had seen before and given nicknames. \u201cCozy Bear,\u201d Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service, had been attacking the DNC since the summer of 2015. \u201cFancy Bear,\u201d which refers to Russia\u2019s military intelligence unit, had started its infiltration shortly before CrowdStrike did its test.<\/p>\n<p>As DNC documents were leaked throughout the summer and into the fall, the episode put the United States on notice that Vladimir Putin\u2019s government is intent on influencing the 2016 election, Alperovitch said during a panel discussion at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). That could mean a couple of things, he said. Russia might try to hack voting machines or it could mount a disinformation campaign to discredit the eventual results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fundamental objective here by the Russians is not necessarily to get one person or another elected as president,\u201d said Alperovitch. \u201cThe fundamental objective is actually much more nefarious, which is to undermine the very idea of a free and fair election \u2014 the cornerstone of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The decentralized nature of the U.S. vote should protect against a widespread intrusion, said Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan advocacy group. Each of the 9,000 election jurisdictions across the country has its own systems and procedures, meaning no single point of failure could disrupt the tally nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, many jurisdictions have mitigation systems that would help election officials reconstruct voters\u2019 intent if electronic voting machines break down or are compromised by an attack. At least 75 percent of voters casting ballots between now and Nov. 8 will do so on machines that have either a paper ballot or a paper backup.<\/p>\n<p>[caption id=\"attachment_213015\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"605\"]<img class=\"wp-image-213015 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/102716__-election_hacking_ss7.jpg\" alt=\"Moderator Michael Sulmeyer, Pamela Smith, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Ben Buchanan. Photo by Sarah Silbiger\" width=\"605\" height=\"403\" \/> Moderator and director of the Belfer Center's Cyber Security Project Michael Sulmeyer (from left), Pamela Smith, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Ben Buchanan at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. \u201cThe fundamental objective [of the hack] ... is to undermine the very idea of a free and fair election,\" said Alperovitch. Photo by Sarah Silbiger[\/caption]However, five states \u2014 Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, and South Carolina \u2014 have no paper trail whatsoever. Another nine, including swing state Pennsylvania, have some jurisdictions that rely on paperless voting.<\/p>\n<p>Voting isn\u2019t the only vulnerability. Every state has a computerized voter registration database that could be susceptible to hacking. Already this year, two states \u2014 Arizona and Illinois \u2014 have seen their registration systems breached. The questions now, according to Smith, include: Can records of who is registered to vote be tampered with or deleted? And, if so, how does that affect the election?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe breaches \u2026 in June and July of the voter registration systems coupled with the DNC hack of the emails really brought a lot of people up short and made them realize this is not so much theoretical,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThis is happening. We need to check our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Homeland Security is collaborating with election officials in 40 states to provide vulnerability scans and cyber-risk assessments. Yet U.S. voting systems are not classified as critical infrastructure, a designation that would allow for enhanced security.<\/p>\n<p>No less urgent, said the\u00a0Belfer Center\u2019s Ben Buchanan, is the need for policymakers to assert consequences for bad actors intent on disrupting American voting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States needs to come out after this election and establish some kind of deterrent policy,\u201d said Buchanan, a postdoctoral fellow with the center\u2019s Cyber Security Project. \u201cIf you start to mess with the integrity of an election machine itself [or] the integrity of a voter registration database or of a dissemination system, we will take that very seriously, and we will retaliate. We consider elections so fundamental to our democracy that we are ready to defend them with force or whatever is required.\"<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;top:612px;left:20px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;top:612px;left:20px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>In late April, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) suspected that something was wrong with their network and called in the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to investigate. A few weeks later, after routine testing, the suspicions were confirmed: The committee had been hacked by the Russians.<\/p>\n<p>The DNC\u2019s system \u201clit up like a Christmas tree,\u201d said Dmitri Alperovitch, CrowdStrike\u2019s chief technology officer. The culprits were bad actors CrowdStrike had seen before and given nicknames. \u201cCozy Bear,\u201d Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service, had been attacking the DNC since the summer of 2015. \u201cFancy Bear,\u201d which refers to Russia\u2019s military intelligence unit, had started its infiltration shortly before CrowdStrike did its test.<\/p>\n<p>As DNC documents were leaked throughout the summer and into the fall, the episode put the United States on notice that Vladimir Putin\u2019s government is intent on influencing the 2016 election, Alperovitch said during a panel discussion at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). That could mean a couple of things, he said. Russia might try to hack voting machines or it could mount a disinformation campaign to discredit the eventual results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fundamental objective here by the Russians is not necessarily to get one person or another elected as president,\u201d said Alperovitch. \u201cThe fundamental objective is actually much more nefarious, which is to undermine the very idea of a free and fair election \u2014 the cornerstone of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The decentralized nature of the U.S. vote should protect against a widespread intrusion, said Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan advocacy group. Each of the 9,000 election jurisdictions across the country has its own systems and procedures, meaning no single point of failure could disrupt the tally nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, many jurisdictions have mitigation systems that would help election officials reconstruct voters\u2019 intent if electronic voting machines break down or are compromised by an attack. At least 75 percent of voters casting ballots between now and Nov. 8 will do so on machines that have either a paper ballot or a paper backup.<\/p>\n<p>[caption id=\"attachment_213015\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"605\"]<img class=\"wp-image-213015 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/102716__-election_hacking_ss7.jpg\" alt=\"Moderator Michael Sulmeyer, Pamela Smith, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Ben Buchanan. Photo by Sarah Silbiger\" width=\"605\" height=\"403\" \/> Moderator and director of the Belfer Center's Cyber Security Project Michael Sulmeyer (from left), Pamela Smith, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Ben Buchanan at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. \u201cThe fundamental objective [of the hack] ... is to undermine the very idea of a free and fair election,\" said Alperovitch. Photo by Sarah Silbiger[\/caption]However, five states \u2014 Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, and South Carolina \u2014 have no paper trail whatsoever. Another nine, including swing state Pennsylvania, have some jurisdictions that rely on paperless voting.<\/p>\n<p>Voting isn\u2019t the only vulnerability. Every state has a computerized voter registration database that could be susceptible to hacking. Already this year, two states \u2014 Arizona and Illinois \u2014 have seen their registration systems breached. The questions now, according to Smith, include: Can records of who is registered to vote be tampered with or deleted? And, if so, how does that affect the election?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe breaches \u2026 in June and July of the voter registration systems coupled with the DNC hack of the emails really brought a lot of people up short and made them realize this is not so much theoretical,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThis is happening. We need to check our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Homeland Security is collaborating with election officials in 40 states to provide vulnerability scans and cyber-risk assessments. Yet U.S. voting systems are not classified as critical infrastructure, a designation that would allow for enhanced security.<\/p>\n<p>No less urgent, said the\u00a0Belfer Center\u2019s Ben Buchanan, is the need for policymakers to assert consequences for bad actors intent on disrupting American voting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States needs to come out after this election and establish some kind of deterrent policy,\u201d said Buchanan, a postdoctoral fellow with the center\u2019s Cyber Security Project. \u201cIf you start to mess with the integrity of an election machine itself [or] the integrity of a voter registration database or of a dissemination system, we will take that very seriously, and we will retaliate. We consider elections so fundamental to our democracy that we are ready to defend them with force or whatever is required.\"<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;top:612px;left:20px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;top:612px;left:20px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>In late April, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) suspected that something was wrong with their network and called in the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to investigate. A few weeks later, after routine testing, the suspicions were confirmed: The committee had been hacked by the Russians.<\/p>\n<p>The DNC\u2019s system \u201clit up like a Christmas tree,\u201d said Dmitri Alperovitch, CrowdStrike\u2019s chief technology officer. The culprits were bad actors CrowdStrike had seen before and given nicknames. \u201cCozy Bear,\u201d Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service, had been attacking the DNC since the summer of 2015. \u201cFancy Bear,\u201d which refers to Russia\u2019s military intelligence unit, had started its infiltration shortly before CrowdStrike did its test.<\/p>\n<p>As DNC documents were leaked throughout the summer and into the fall, the episode put the United States on notice that Vladimir Putin\u2019s government is intent on influencing the 2016 election, Alperovitch said during a panel discussion at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). That could mean a couple of things, he said. Russia might try to hack voting machines or it could mount a disinformation campaign to discredit the eventual results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fundamental objective here by the Russians is not necessarily to get one person or another elected as president,\u201d said Alperovitch. \u201cThe fundamental objective is actually much more nefarious, which is to undermine the very idea of a free and fair election \u2014 the cornerstone of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The decentralized nature of the U.S. vote should protect against a widespread intrusion, said Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan advocacy group. Each of the 9,000 election jurisdictions across the country has its own systems and procedures, meaning no single point of failure could disrupt the tally nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, many jurisdictions have mitigation systems that would help election officials reconstruct voters\u2019 intent if electronic voting machines break down or are compromised by an attack. At least 75 percent of voters casting ballots between now and Nov. 8 will do so on machines that have either a paper ballot or a paper backup.<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_213015\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-213015\" style=\"width: 605px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img class=\"wp-image-213015 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/102716__-election_hacking_ss7.jpg\" alt=\"Moderator Michael Sulmeyer, Pamela Smith, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Ben Buchanan. Photo by Sarah Silbiger\" width=\"605\" height=\"403\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-213015\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Moderator and director of the Belfer Center's Cyber Security Project Michael Sulmeyer (from left), Pamela Smith, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Ben Buchanan at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. \u201cThe fundamental objective [of the hack] ... is to undermine the very idea of a free and fair election,\" said Alperovitch. Photo by Sarah Silbiger<\/figcaption><\/figure>However, five states \u2014 Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, and South Carolina \u2014 have no paper trail whatsoever. Another nine, including swing state Pennsylvania, have some jurisdictions that rely on paperless voting.<\/p>\n<p>Voting isn\u2019t the only vulnerability. Every state has a computerized voter registration database that could be susceptible to hacking. Already this year, two states \u2014 Arizona and Illinois \u2014 have seen their registration systems breached. The questions now, according to Smith, include: Can records of who is registered to vote be tampered with or deleted? And, if so, how does that affect the election?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe breaches \u2026 in June and July of the voter registration systems coupled with the DNC hack of the emails really brought a lot of people up short and made them realize this is not so much theoretical,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThis is happening. We need to check our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Homeland Security is collaborating with election officials in 40 states to provide vulnerability scans and cyber-risk assessments. Yet U.S. voting systems are not classified as critical infrastructure, a designation that would allow for enhanced security.<\/p>\n<p>No less urgent, said the\u00a0Belfer Center\u2019s Ben Buchanan, is the need for policymakers to assert consequences for bad actors intent on disrupting American voting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States needs to come out after this election and establish some kind of deterrent policy,\u201d said Buchanan, a postdoctoral fellow with the center\u2019s Cyber Security Project. \u201cIf you start to mess with the integrity of an election machine itself [or] the integrity of a voter registration database or of a dissemination system, we will take that very seriously, and we will retaliate. We consider elections so fundamental to our democracy that we are ready to defend them with force or whatever is required.\"<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;top:612px;left:20px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;top:612px;left:20px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>In late April, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) suspected that something was wrong with their network and called in the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to investigate. A few weeks later, after routine testing, the suspicions were confirmed: The committee had been hacked by the Russians.<\/p>\n<p>The DNC\u2019s system \u201clit up like a Christmas tree,\u201d said Dmitri Alperovitch, CrowdStrike\u2019s chief technology officer. The culprits were bad actors CrowdStrike had seen before and given nicknames. \u201cCozy Bear,\u201d Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service, had been attacking the DNC since the summer of 2015. \u201cFancy Bear,\u201d which refers to Russia\u2019s military intelligence unit, had started its infiltration shortly before CrowdStrike did its test.<\/p>\n<p>As DNC documents were leaked throughout the summer and into the fall, the episode put the United States on notice that Vladimir Putin\u2019s government is intent on influencing the 2016 election, Alperovitch said during a panel discussion at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). That could mean a couple of things, he said. Russia might try to hack voting machines or it could mount a disinformation campaign to discredit the eventual results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fundamental objective here by the Russians is not necessarily to get one person or another elected as president,\u201d said Alperovitch. \u201cThe fundamental objective is actually much more nefarious, which is to undermine the very idea of a free and fair election \u2014 the cornerstone of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The decentralized nature of the U.S. vote should protect against a widespread intrusion, said Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan advocacy group. Each of the 9,000 election jurisdictions across the country has its own systems and procedures, meaning no single point of failure could disrupt the tally nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, many jurisdictions have mitigation systems that would help election officials reconstruct voters\u2019 intent if electronic voting machines break down or are compromised by an attack. At least 75 percent of voters casting ballots between now and Nov. 8 will do so on machines that have either a paper ballot or a paper backup.<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_213015\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-213015\" style=\"width: 605px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img class=\"wp-image-213015 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/102716__-election_hacking_ss7.jpg\" alt=\"Moderator Michael Sulmeyer, Pamela Smith, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Ben Buchanan. Photo by Sarah Silbiger\" width=\"605\" height=\"403\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-213015\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Moderator and director of the Belfer Center's Cyber Security Project Michael Sulmeyer (from left), Pamela Smith, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Ben Buchanan at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. \u201cThe fundamental objective [of the hack] ... is to undermine the very idea of a free and fair election,\" said Alperovitch. Photo by Sarah Silbiger<\/figcaption><\/figure>However, five states \u2014 Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, and South Carolina \u2014 have no paper trail whatsoever. Another nine, including swing state Pennsylvania, have some jurisdictions that rely on paperless voting.<\/p>\n<p>Voting isn\u2019t the only vulnerability. Every state has a computerized voter registration database that could be susceptible to hacking. Already this year, two states \u2014 Arizona and Illinois \u2014 have seen their registration systems breached. The questions now, according to Smith, include: Can records of who is registered to vote be tampered with or deleted? And, if so, how does that affect the election?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe breaches \u2026 in June and July of the voter registration systems coupled with the DNC hack of the emails really brought a lot of people up short and made them realize this is not so much theoretical,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThis is happening. We need to check our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Homeland Security is collaborating with election officials in 40 states to provide vulnerability scans and cyber-risk assessments. Yet U.S. voting systems are not classified as critical infrastructure, a designation that would allow for enhanced security.<\/p>\n<p>No less urgent, said the\u00a0Belfer Center\u2019s Ben Buchanan, is the need for policymakers to assert consequences for bad actors intent on disrupting American voting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States needs to come out after this election and establish some kind of deterrent policy,\u201d said Buchanan, a postdoctoral fellow with the center\u2019s Cyber Security Project. \u201cIf you start to mess with the integrity of an election machine itself [or] the integrity of a voter registration database or of a dissemination system, we will take that very seriously, and we will retaliate. We consider elections so fundamental to our democracy that we are ready to defend them with force or whatever is required.\"<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;top:612px;left:20px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;top:612px;left:20px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius:2px;text-indent:20px;width:auto;padding:0 4px 0 0;text-align:center;font:bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;background:#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px;position:absolute;opacity:1;z-index:8675309;display:none;cursor:pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":228648,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2018\/01\/wanted-a-firewall-to-protect-u-s-elections\/","url_meta":{"origin":213013,"position":0},"title":"Wanted: A firewall to protect U.S. elections","author":"gazettejohnbaglione","date":"January 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A new bipartisan initiative at Harvard Kennedy School picks up where the federal government leaves off, bringing together experts in national security, cybersecurity, and politics to develop practical strategies, tools, and guidance to help U.S. political campaigns protect themselves from cyber threats.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & 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connections.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Senate Select Committee on Watergate.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220614_wgate_side_AP_730518089.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220614_wgate_side_AP_730518089.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220614_wgate_side_AP_730518089.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220614_wgate_side_AP_730518089.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":340062,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2022\/03\/harvard-elections-and-the-critical-role-alumni-play\/","url_meta":{"origin":213013,"position":2},"title":"\u2018Driven by alumni \u2014 and representing our community in a profound way\u2019","author":"Lian Parsons","date":"March 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Three members of the Harvard alumni nominating committee and the HAA executive director explained the committee\u2019s work, the role alumni play at Harvard in elections, and what it means to get involved and vote.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Philip Lovejoy (clockwise from top left) Roger Fairfax, Sid Espinosa, and June Nagao.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/021522_HAA_284.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/021522_HAA_284.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/021522_HAA_284.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, 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Malmstad, professor of Slavic Languages at Harvard University, and Nikolay Bogomolov, professor of Russian Literature at University of Moscow, Russia, with an honorable mention for \"Mikhail Kuzmin: A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108352576"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213013"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213032,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213013\/revisions\/213032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213013"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=213013"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=213013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}