FBI Expands Election Security Initiative

The program offers resources and advice to help protect elections at every level within the US.

The FBI is expanding its Protected Voices initiative aimed at protecting US elections from cyberattacks and other forms of tampering via disinformation. Protected Voices is the program through which the FBI shares resources, information, and tools with political campaigns to help protect the integrity of elections at every level, from county to national. 

Because it involves divisions and departments that normally work in the shadows, the FBI acknowledges that its announcement is unusual. “It is not the general practice of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division to go to the public with information,” said Nikki Floris, deputy assistant director of that division. “But this is a threat that not only concerns every American, it involves every American.”

The Protected Voices initiative includes not just intelligence on threats but guidance on what campaigns should do to protect their data. “These are the steps your information technology team needs to take. This is the training you should give every campaign worker and volunteer. This is where you are vulnerable. This is where you need to be on guard,” said Bradley Benavides, a section chief with the Foreign Influence Task Force.

The materials and resource of Protected Voices are available to everyone, not just those involved in political campaigns. And the announcement stresses that the advice could be useful to any organization or individual. The full suite of Protected Voices resources are available here.

For more, read here.

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