With the UK general election just days away and the attempted labour data breach still fresh on everyone’s minds, I thought it might be topical for an angle around election security. Disinformation and fake news campaigns continue to hit the headlines, especially given Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure to release a report on Russian meddling in Brexit vote before the general election.
-
The type of threats around election security and how they might influence the outcome of an election
- State sponsored attacks
- Technical cyber attacks
- Data leaks
- Mis-Information campaigns
- Ransomware attacks
With both US and UK elections on the horizon, cyber threats have never been so significant. Unlike with enterprises, the attackers’ objectives are less likely to be financially motivated or an attempt to steal data. Instead, they seek political disruption. The most worrying element of political disruption as an objective is that the actual attack can be relatively limited. The damage is in what it signifies about international relations, national cyber resilience and the governing bodies. In essence, it could undermine public confidence in government, losing trust. Which arguably hampers a country’s resilience harder than any physical attack might.
This makes securing the IT infrastructure is absolutely essential to a strong government. It should not only take a layered approach to security to ensure maximum resiliency, but there should also be comprehensive training and awareness programs for employees and rigorous process checking to ensure the security posture is as protected as possible.
Above all, it is important to remember that cyber war is a very real concept and it goes beyond our traditional view of either international relations or cyber threat. It stands to reason, therefore, that we must also check our view of cyber security and the context – technically, politically and economically – it exists in. At election time, discussion around cyber security goes beyond the tech.