Jim Richberg, "Election Security in the Age of COVID-19: Risk Management in the face of a “Perfect Storm”"

Summary: Digital Transformation has fundamentally affected the conduct of elections since 2000. This webinar shares the perspective of a former senior Federal official who worked to help secure US elections against foreign interference during a 30+ year career in the US Government and who now works as a Chief Information Security Officer for a leading global cyber and network security company. This presentation will provide both background knowledge applicable to a general audience as well as advice and recommendations for government officials and their partners who are charged with carrying out elections. Topics covered in this webinar include: ·      Identifying key challenges in electoral integrity, especially the importance of public perception and voter confidence.Explore why and how securing elections differs from classic’ information security in its complexity and solutions. ·      Describing the “perfect storm” of colliding factors in the 2020 elections. We faceCOVID-19 related challenges ranging from public health concerns to added complexity and cost—and a pivot to mass mail-in voting is likely to both require process and technology changes and put stress on some of the most fragile parts of the existing election infrastructure. The expected surge of mail-in paper ballots in 2020 doesn’t make cybersecurity irrelevant;if anything, it heightens its importance. Dealing with these challenges is a risk management problem; so the webinar will provide recommendations on ‘doing with less’ – ranging from which parts of the problem to address first to how to harness the power of IT and leverage partnerships.