FBI launch of Protected Voice Campaign For Sheltered elections

FBI launch of Protected Voice Campaign For Sheltered elections

Post Iowa caucus election result problem, which created great chaos amongst the voters, FBI has launched the Protected Voices Initiative to help Political campaigns to run smoothly and give voters a sigh of relief with respect to cybersecurity. Iowa Elective process has led to great chaos when inconsistencies were found in the polling results due to incorrect data in the Application. This initiative will defend voters from online influential maneuvers and cybersecurity threats.

Organizations like LIFARS provides training programs to address security issues and needs for an organization.

What is this campaign about?

FBI government publishing on this subject state, “The protected voices campaign includes information and guidance from FBI and Department of Homeland Security and the office of Director of National Intelligence”.

The FBI portal Tech Tuesday report focuses on providing cybersecurity information to political campaigns and individuals in Oregon. The report clearly discusses the possible cyber threats and defense mechanisms against these threats. Under the Threats section, information about the possible vulnerabilities is shared which could impact the upcoming political campaigns and must be considered in the planning phase. On the counter of this information, the government has also provided defense mechanisms to deal with any cyber attack and avoid any risk during the events.

 

Key Points of Campaign

Under the defense section, the FBI encourages groups to get a quick run through of the videos attached in the Report. These videos are on various subjects to protect users’ digital devices, social media accounts, and private information.

Any chaos on social media of voters or government accounts can again lead to disrupted harmony which the government doesn’t want now. NIST has updated the basics of any attack i.e. passwords. If the password of a user is easy to crack, which is a usual case, then any security breach becomes an easy passage. NSIT has listed a few points to be considered by organizations to secure their data from any attack in the future. Recommendations from NIST to be followed by organizations are:

  • Use longer passwords or passphrases of 15 or more characters without requiring uppercase, lowercase, or special characters.
  • Only require password changes when there’s a reason to believe that the network has been compromised.
  • To have the network administrators screen everyone’s passwords against lists of dictionary words and passwords known to have been compromised.
  • To help prevent a denial of service attack against your email service, don’t lock a user’s account after a certain number of incorrect login attempts. That way, even if an adversary floods your network with purposefully incorrect login information, your users won’t be locked out of their accounts.
  • Password “hints.” should not be allowed

Password Managers and Vaults: The FBI has also warned about using password managers and vaults which make all the passwords vulnerable. If the attacker attacks the vault directly, it is a child’s play to retrieve a golden box of passwords.

Educative videos were created considering all grounds of citizens and keeping the past data attacks into account. These videos educate on critical cybersecurity and foreign influence topics and have been updated with 2019 fall for:

  • Message from FBI Director Christopher Wray
  • Business Email Compromise
  • Cloud-Based Services
  • Foreign Influence
  • Passphrases and Multi-Factor Authentication
  • Ransomware
  • Router Security
  • Social Media Literacy
  • Supply Chain

The existing videos include defense against attack when using Wi-Fi, Router hardening, Patching firewall and antivirus software, browser and app security, Information Security, Safer Campaign communications, Virtual Private networks and How to report an Incidence. With a positive vow for clean elections, the government marches ahead against the cybercriminals.

Launching such education stuff and publishing it in one place, government departments have made appreciable efforts. These videos will educate a beginner and at the same time, will help an intermediary in cybersecurity to harden their devices and data security, making the upcoming election a pure success.

This will not just be a winning situation for elections and government but also for all voters to upgrade themselves on the cybersecurity front and avoid any threat of data breaches in their day to day affairs unknowingly. Answering various FAQ’s on the Protected Voice report FBI states”It is always important to practice good cyber hygiene, or taking basic steps to protect yourself from hackers