US election security official highlights email threat

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

US election security official highlights email threat

By MORGAN LEE
July 3, 2019

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Beware the phishing attempts.

An election security official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday warned top state election officials nationwide to safeguard against fraudulent emails targeting state and local election workers.

The emails appear as if they come from a legitimate source and contain links that, if clicked, can open up election data systems to manipulation or attacks.

Geoff Hale, director of the department’s Election Security Initiative, told a gathering of secretaries of state that the nation’s decentralized voting systems remain especially vulnerable to emails that can trick unsuspecting workers into providing access to elections databases.

“We know that phishing is how a significant number of state and local government networks become exploited,” Hale told scores of secretaries of state gathered in the New Mexico capital city. “Understanding your organization’s susceptibility to phishing is one of the biggest things you can do.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/e725e8946e57405aaa8a59fc3892f522

[Bayard]

1. That's the best they can do?

Our election security mostly depends on workers not clicking a button?