As cyber connectivity increases, foreign actors have been able to exploit vulnerabilities on smartphones, computers, and the digital infrastructure that supports them to undermine democracies. Probing and penetrating computer networks and connected systems allows malign actors to surreptitiously steal, alter, and collect data, damaging citizens’ privacy and disrupting organizational and institutional processes in democracies. Find ASD’s work on cybersecurity on this page.
Interference Matters
How Government Agencies Can Signal Trust Online Using .Gov Domain Names
How Government Agencies Can Signal Trust Online Using .Gov Domain Names
The name of a website is the key indicator users, operators, and algorithms use to evaluate the authenticity of the owner of that website. So much so that there are frequent, sophisticated attempts to trick users into going to fake websites to steal [...]
What to Watch: ASD Experts Set the Stage for Biden’s Summit for Democracy
On December 9 and 10, U.S. President Joseph R. Biden will bring together leaders from 110 countries and governments for a virtual Summit for Democracy based around three key themes: defending against authoritarianism; addressing and fighting corrupt [...]
Politically Motivated Ransomware Attacks: Science Fiction or Reality?
Cybersecurity experts have watched closely as two trends in cyber interference have steadily grown in popularity: ransomware and hacktivism. Up to this point, they have remained relatively separate. That is, hacktivists have used technology for encr [...]
With Friends Like These
Gulf states engaged in cyber-espionage, hacking, and harassment must not be given carte blanche to poison the cyber-realm simply because they are U.S. security partners. The Justice Department recently announced that three former U.S. intelligence [...]
Q&A with Maurice Turner: How Can Democracies Fight Back Against Ransomware?
Ransomware payments in the United States reached nearly $600 million in the first six months of 2021, exceeding the amount of ransom that U.S. institutions reportedly paid to cybercriminals during all of 2020. In 2021, the United States has fallen v [...]
Maurice Turner on NPR: How America Can Reliably Resist Ransomware
The Biden Administration is attempting to curtail an uptick in ransomware attacks on American businesses. Just last week, an Iowa grain co-operative was hit by a cyberattack by hacking group BlackMatter demanding $5.9 million dollars. In June, the [...]
Policymakers Shouldn’t Wait for a “Cyber 9/11” or “Digital Pearl Harbor” to Act on Long-Term Cyber Strategies
Digital attacks on critical infrastructure are occurring at a pace that is overwhelming defenders, yet not alarming the public enough to push for greater accountability in the defense of hospitals, schools, and energy distributors. For over a decade [...]
Maurice Turner in WSJ: Ransomware Payments Should Not Be Made Illegal
Making ransomware payments illegal would eliminate one of the few options that victims have to recover their data and get back to work quickly. Time is money. Sometimes paying a ransom is less expensive than withholding one—and being forced to labor [...]
Maurice Turner Gives Insight into Biden’s Cybersecurity Meeting with Private Sector on CBS News
President Biden is calling on the private sector to help bolster U.S. cybersecurity. He hosted leaders in tech, finance, education and infrastructure for a summit at the White House Wednesday. Maurice Turner, a cybersecurity fellow for the Alliance [...]
How Authoritarians Can Exploit Apple’s Child Safety Initiatives
Much has been said about Apple’s recently announced “Child Safety” initiatives. The focus has been (rightly so) on the perceptions of user privacy and implications of content processing happening on user devices versus cloud servers. Child safety pr [...]
Maurice Turner Explains Why Hacking Voters Is Easier Than Hacking Ballots at Def Con
Vulnerabilities in U.S. election infrastructure not only expose the nation’s elections to hybrid physical and network attacks, but its voters to influence campaigns designed to cast doubt in the process itself. Authoritarian regimes such as Russia, [...]
Maurice Turner on Tackling the Remnants of Systematic Discrimination in the Tech Industry at Def Con
It’s easy to just accept the status quo even when it’s harmful because that’s just how it’s always been done. Discrimination in the tech industry is no different. The reuse and amplification of discriminatory language can have damaging effects on th [...]