Page 31 - Federal Computer Week, May/June 2019

Feature Story
EXPERTS DIFFER ON WHETHER ELECTION OFFICIALS WILL FACE THE SAME THREATS AS 2016 OR WHETHER THEY SHOULD EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED IN 2020
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Experts are divided over whether local officials and federal agencies should expect the same type of efforts to undermine the election infrastructure and manipulate online discourse that they experienced in 2016 — or whether they should expect the unexpected.
On Election Day in 2018, federal officials said they saw no indication that voting infrastructure was successfully targeted by cyberattacks or other efforts designed to strike voters from the rolls, change vote counts or hinder officials from completing election tallies.
Yet concerns about malign influence campaigns and new vectors of attack continue to factor into discussions about the 2020 election.
BY DEREK B. JOHNSON
May/June 2019
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