Campaign election

Google is bringing its political ad transparency tools to the EU ahead of the spring 2019 elections, it said Thursday.The search giant will use EU election commissions' data to inform voters about participation and require that it's clear who paid for all election ads, Lie Junius, the company's EU public policy director, wrote in a blog post.It'll also require advertisers to apply and get verified before paying for political ads. They'll also have to submit a party registration document or a European ID, Bloomberg noted.The region is also getting an EU-specific version of the election ads transparency report and searchable ad library."In addition to new political advertising transparency tools, we're continuing our critical investments in keeping our own platforms secure and are working with campaigns, elections officials, journalists, human rights organizations and others across the EU to ensure the security of the online platforms that they depend on," Junius wrote.This push comes … [Read more...] about Google expands election ad transparency tools ahead of EU vote

The biggest concern for election security won't be on Election Day -- it'll be the day after, Department of Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said. At a Council on Foreign Relations event on Friday morning in New York, the DHS secretary described what worries her the most about election security. The conversation comes just four days before Election Day, as the DHS has made a major effort to protect the US elections from foreign interference. That includes assisting election officials in all 50 states, creating its own center to protect critical infrastructure, and attending Defcon to learn about voting machine flaws. While DHS is doing everything it can to protect the machines and make sure voting officials are prepared, it's the wave of disinformation on social media that'll come after that Nielsen's worried about. "My biggest concern is that a foreign entity will take the opportunity after the election, or the night of the election, to attempt to sow discord through … [Read more...] about Homeland Security’s biggest election concern is what comes after you vote

Symantec is offering a free tool for US campaigns and election officials to fight fraudulent websites, the company announced Tuesday. The feature could help take away an important weapon in the election hacking arsenal: the spoof website. Lookalike websites could imitate official government sites and report false information about candidates or voting. What's more, they've already been used to imitate a login page to trick campaign workers to enter their valuable usernames and passwords.That approach, called phishing, was key to letting hackers gain access to the emails and internal documents of important Democratic Party organizations and key figures in Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, according to an indictment of the Russian hackers alleged to have stolen and leaked emails from the groups. Now playing: Watch this: Hackers take on new voting machines at Defcon 1:41 Symantec offers its tool -- called SpoofProof -- as election officials are trying to … [Read more...] about Symantec takes on election hacking by fighting copycat websites