Election Security Isn’t Red or Blue… It’s Purple

Since the controversy over Russian hacking during the 2016 elections, election security and voter confidence have become a state and federal priority going into the 2020 election season.  The recommended solution to vulnerable electronic election systems has been to move toward the use of more paper—leave a paper trail as a safeguard to counter any cyber interference.

But then COVID-19 happened. Instead of more paper, more aspects of the voting process went online. Even paper-based processes like mail-in ballots have become topics of controversy as state governments grapple with the rapidly changing public health crisis and the abrupt changes to election processes it necessitates.

Preserving Trust in the Democratic Process

Although interference in election processes from hackers is a real and ongoing threat, voter confidence in the process is also a major problem. In fact, some experts speculate that many hackers aren’t as interested in actually changing votes as they are in undermining the democratic process in general, making Americans doubt the efficacy of the system.

As the debate about election processes and the decrease of in-person voting in the face of COVID-19 heats up, the lines are being draw along partisan divides. But everyone agrees that the democratic process relies on the assurance citizens can vote and that those votes are anonymous and accurately counted.

Achieving this mutual goal is problematic from a cybersecurity perspective for a number of reasons as more and more aspects of the election process happen electronically. How do you protect election information from tampering in an electronic environment when it is imperative that the data remain anonymous? What do you do if system breaches are suspected when physical paper trails are absent or also unreliable? When nefarious activity is detected, how do you proceed in a system where do-overs are nearly impossible?

How do you provide assurance? Secretary of state election divisions are working hard with federal and private sector partners to manage election infrastructure and meet pre- and post- election security benchmarks in an attempt to answer that question.

Preparing a Secure Election Environment

A robust election security posture will require preparation. Because do overs are virtually impossible in elections, vulnerabilities must be identified and shored up before they can occur. Red teaming attack emulations are essential to find weaknesses and ensure known infiltration techniques are tested. Blue teams must plug every hole and track every matric. They need a view across the cyber landscape and an agile and rapid approach to defending against both known and unexpected threats.

Coordinating these best practices between state and county election personnel is essential. Local teams are the front line in ensuring security, but election staff can be underfunded and understaffed in many counties. These individuals need support, communication, and a coordinated effort if they are to implement all measures necessary to create a secure election environment for voters.

Platforms like PlexTrac can be used to support the work of red and blue teams and provide a place for coordination across all precincts so a state can have a clear, real time view of their election security posture. Effectively tracked communication can help achieve the rapid remediation necessary to block attacks at the lowest point of infiltration, creating a safe environment for election processes to proceed.

Protecting the Data Post-Election

Once the vote has taken place regardless of the mechanism—in person paper ballots, voting machines, mail-in ballots, or even increasing and controversial online voting apps—it must be tabulated, verified, and stored. These post-election processes are also a point of concern. Protecting the crown jewels—in this case the election results—from tampering is essential for public assurance in the election process.

Determining where to store results in cyberspace and the security of those databases should be a top priority. The necessity of verifying close or contested results requires trustworthy records. Even if a paper trail exists, the digital counterpart of election tracking is still essential and must be reliable.

Trustworthy platforms for compiling and reporting on the protection of essential election data can help bring assurance to election officials and the public alike. Effective cybersecurity purple teaming, made possible by platforms like PlexTrac, can serve as the initial steps in the ongoing marathon of election data security.

Purple Teaming to Bring the Teams Together

While republicans and democrats debate the funding of election security, changes to election processes in response to coronavirus, and communication to voters, everyone ultimately wants the same thing—a fair democratic election process. Behind the scenes, cybersecurity professionals work on their own red and blue teams to assure that mutual aspiration.

As the Department of Homeland Security states, “Securing election infrastructure is a partnership between federal, state and local government and private sector entities.” Moving toward a purple teaming paradigm focused on collaboration and communication among all stakeholders with the goal of identifying and eliminating threats in quick, iterative cycles could help solve many of the problems presented when elections and electronics interact.

Whether voters identify as red or blue, the democratic process is purple. The purple teaming platform—PlexTrac—can give state election divisions the comprehensive view they need to coordinate their election security processes to face the changing election landscape with confidence.

Read more about how the Idaho Office of the Secretary of State Elections Division is taking a proactive approach to their election cybersecurity by partnering with PlexTrac.