Senators demand to know why election vendors still sell voting machines with ‘known’ vulnerabilities’

Four senior senators have called on the largest U.S. voting machine makers to explain why they continue to sell devices with “known vulnerabilities,” ahead of upcoming critical elections. The letter, sent Wednesday, calls on election equipment makers ES&S, Dominion Voting, and Hart InterCivic to explain why they continue to sell decades-old machines, which the senators […]

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Homeland Security hasn’t done enough to protect election infrastructure, says watchdog

Homeland Security could do more to protect election infrastructure ahead, according to a new report by the department’s watchdog. The report from the inspector general, out Wednesday, said progress had been made but Homeland Security, the department charged with protecting elections and the back-end voting machine infrastructure, still “does not have dedicated staff” focused on […]

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Facebook refuses to disclose “chuck Chequers” Brexit advertiser to UK parliament

Facebook has refused to provide the British parliament with the names of individuals behind a shadowy network backing an extreme ‘no deal’ Brexit outcome over a government-negotiated compromise. Since the June 2016 EU referendum vote, politics in the UK has been consumed by the question of how to implement a close vote to leave. And […]

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Twitter names first international markets to get checks on political advertisers

Twitter has announced it’s expanding checks on political advertisers outside the U.S. to also cover Australia, India and all the member states of the European Union. This means anyone wanting to run political ads on its platform in those regions will first need to go through its certification process to prove their identity and certify […]

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Australia’s government and political parties hit by cyber attack from ‘sophisticated state actor’

The Australia government suffered a cyber attack that it suspects is the work of a “sophisticated state actor,” according to the country’s Prime Minister. PM Scott Morrison said today the computer network of the country’s parliament, and those belonging to Liberal, Labor and Nationals parties, were targeted by an attack which took place a few weeks ago, The Sydney […]

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Manipulating an Indian politician’s tweets is worryingly easy to do

Here’s a concerning story from India, where the upcoming election is putting the use of social media in the spotlight. While the Indian government is putting Facebook, Google and other companies under pressure to prevent their digital platforms from being used for election manipulation, a journalist has demonstrated just how easy it is to control […]

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With cybersecurity threats looming, the government shutdown is putting America at risk

Putting political divisions and affiliations aside, the government partially shutting down for the third time over the last year is extremely worrisome, particularly when considering its impact on the nation’s cybersecurity priorities. Unlike the government, our nation’s enemies don’t ‘shut down.’ When our nation’s cyber centers are not actively monitoring and protecting our most valuable assets and critical infrastructure, threats magnify and vulnerabilities become further exposed.

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Facebook finds and kills another 512 Kremlin-linked fake accounts

Two years on from the U.S. presidential election, Facebook continues to have a major problem with Russian disinformation being megaphoned via its social tools. In a blog post today the company reveals another tranche of Kremlin-linked fake activity — saying it’s removed a total of 471 Facebook pages and accounts, as well as 41 Instagram accounts, which […]

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Facebook is launching political ad checks in Nigeria, Ukraine, EU and India in coming months

Facebook is launching some of its self-styled ‘election security’ initiatives into more markets in the coming months ahead of several major votes in countries around the world. In an interview with Reuters the social networking giant confirmed it’s launching checks on political adverts on its platform in Nigeria, Ukraine and the European Union, reiterating too that […]

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Google ‘incognito’ search results still vary from person to person, DDG study finds

A study of Google search results by anti-tracking rival DuckDuckGo has suggested that escaping the so-called ‘filter bubble’ of personalized online searches is a perniciously hard problem for the put upon Internet consumer who just wants to carve out a little unbiased space online, free from the suggestive taint of algorithmic fingers. DDG reckons it’s […]

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Bots Distorted the 2016 Election. Will the Midterms Be a Sequel?

Tiffany Olson Kleemann Contributor Tiffany Olson Kleemann is the chief executive officer of Distil Networks. She formerly served in executive roles at Symantec and FireEye and was deputy chief of staff for cybersecurity operations under President George W. Bush. The fact that Russian-linked bots penetrated social media to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election has […]

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Donald Trump’s election was a ‘traumatic experience’ for many college students

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To say that the 2016 presidential election had a profound impact on the American psyche might be an understatement. 

In fact, new research suggests that for many, the experience was actually traumatic. 

In a survey of roughly 800 college students, 25 percent reported such high levels of stress after the election that researchers likened it to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a new study published in the Journal of American College Health

Throughout the election, researchers noticed some pretty strong reactions in young adults. But the day after the election, lead researcher Melissa Hagan taught two classes where she saw that students were visibly upset — some were even crying.  Read more…

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View More Donald Trump’s election was a ‘traumatic experience’ for many college students