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On the 2020 Congressional cybersecurity agenda: Critical infrastructure, copyright…

lead centered=”no”Despite the distraction of an election year, Congress is expected to give the Department of Homeland Security tools to identify critical infrastructure threats and copyright exemptions to security researchers./lead

Distracted by high-profile developments, gridlocked by partisan resentment, and time-crunched due to the election year, Congress is nevertheless swinging into gear on specific cybersecurity issues, Washington insiders told attendees at Shmoocon 2020 this past weekend. Among the top items that Congress might tackle are new subpoena powers to address critical infrastructure threats, a big-picture policy report, and copyright law exemptions that protect security researchers.

Congressional interest in cybersecurity has escalated over the past decade, the panelists agreed. “Congress members are aware of a challenge. They want to do something to fix it,” Nick Leiserson, legislative director to Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI), a senior member of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, said. “There is engagement, and that is very important. That is a change that is not where we were ten years ago when my boss was being looked at oddly by his colleagues. You know, they were like, ‘Here’s the tinfoil hat, Jim,'” he said.

This article appeared in CSO Online. To read the rest of the article please visit here.

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Why one of America’s top experts is hopeful for…

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Voting machines and elections in general are still vulnerable to hacking, says Matt Blaze, but adoption of risk-limiting audits and software independence gives opportunity for improvement.
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In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, election security quickly became one of the hottest political and cybersecurity research topics. The growing unease that foreign and other adversaries might meddle in our digital voting infrastructure gave way to a growing chorus among some experts to disband digital voting technology altogether and revert to paper ballots.

Six top-tier information security experts issued an alarming report about what they had discovered when they took apart voting machines at DEF CON’s Voting Village last year. They found dozens of severe vulnerabilities in a range of voting equipment, including one in a device from top voting technology supplier Election Systems & Software that could allow an attacker to remotely hijack the system over a network and alter the vote count.

One of those experts, Georgetown University professor and noted cryptographer Matt Blaze, told attendees at this year’s annual Shmoocon conference that in the 20 years he has been studying election security, “it is the hardest security problem I’ve ever encountered.”

This article appeared in CSO Online. To read the rest of the article please visit here.