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Google expands election security support to elected officials, political campaigns

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Sara Swann
By Sara SwannFeb 10, 2021
Sara Swann

As a staff writer, Sara covers a variety of democracy reform issues, including voting rights, money in politics, gerrymandering and civic education. Prior to joining The Fulcrum in May 2019, Sara reported on local government on Maryland's Eastern Shore for the USA Today network. She is a native West Virginian and a graduate of Syracuse University.

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Google announced Tuesday its plans to expand free election security services to elected officials and political campaigns across the country.

During the 2020 election cycle, the tech company, in collaboration with the nonprofit Defending Digital Campaigns, provided cybersecurity support to federal campaigns. Google's new 50-state venture builds on this by expanding services to eligible campaigns and political parties, committees and related organizations, as well as elected officials and their staff.

While election security concerns took a backseat in last year's election to the more pressing problems presented by the coronavirus pandemic, cybersecurity will remain a critical issue for campaigns in the lead-up to the 2022 midterms and beyond.

Last year, Google and Defending Digital Campaigns provided more than 140 federal campaigns with free two-factor authentication keys to help protect against phishing and other cyber attacks. Defending Digital Campaigns also partners with Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and several other tech companies to provide cybersecurity services and protection.

In addition to continuing its technological support for political campaigns, Google and Defending Digital Campaigns will also provide free, virtual security training in all 50 states by the end of this year. Through these sessions, state campaign officials and staff members will be able to learn the basics of how to protect their organizations, keep their information safe and use security tools.

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Google will also establish an election security help desk and "best practices" knowledge base as a resource for campaigns and to help answer their cybersecurity-related questions.

The tech company, in partnership with the National Cybersecurity Center, is extending its support to elected officials as well by providing virtual training sessions in all 50 states throughout this year. The goal is to educate state lawmakers and their staff on how to safeguard against digital attacks.

"Keeping everyone safe online remains our top priority and we look forward to continuing our work in 2021 to make sure campaigns and elected officials around the world stay safe online," Mark Risher, director of product management, identity and user security at Google, wrote in the company's announcement.

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Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

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Your Take: The Price of Freedom

Your Take: The Price of Freedom

Our question about the price of freedom received a light response. We asked:

What price have you, your friends or your family paid for the freedom we enjoy? And what price would you willingly pay?

It was a question born out of the horror of images from Ukraine. We hope that the news about the Jan. 6 commission and Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination was so riveting that this question was overlooked. We considered another possibility that the images were so traumatic, that our readers didn’t want to consider the question for themselves. We saw the price Ukrainians paid.

One response came from a veteran who noted that being willing to pay the ultimate price for one’s country and surviving was a gift that was repaid over and over throughout his life. “I know exactly what it is like to accept that you are a dead man,” he said. What most closely mirrored my own experience was a respondent who noted her lack of payment in blood, sweat or tears, yet chose to volunteer in helping others exercise their freedom.

Personally, my price includes service to our nation, too. The price I paid was the loss of my former life, which included a husband, a home and a seemingly secure job to enter the political fray with a message of partisan healing and hope for the future. This work isn’t risking my life, but it’s the price I’ve paid.

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Given the earnest question we asked, and the meager responses, I am also left wondering if we think at all about the price of freedom? Or have we all become so entitled to our freedom that we fail to defend freedom for others? Or was the question poorly timed?

I read another respondent’s words as an indicator of his pacifism. And another veteran who simply stated his years of service. And that was it. Four responses to a question that lives in my heart every day. We look forward to hearing Your Take on other topics. Feel free to share questions to which you’d like to respond.

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Tom G. Palmer has been involved in the advance of democratic free-market policies and reforms around the globe for more than three decades. He is executive vice president for international programs at Atlas Network and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

One argument frequently advanced for abandoning the messy business of democratic deliberation is that all those checks and balances, hearings and debates, judicial review and individual rights get in the way of development. What’s needed is action, not more empty debate or selfish individualism!

In the words of European autocrat Viktor Orbán, “No policy-specific debates are needed now, the alternatives in front of us are obvious…[W]e need to understand that for rebuilding the economy it is not theories that are needed but rather thirty robust lads who start working to implement what we all know needs to be done.” See! Just thirty robust lads and one far-sighted overseer and you’re on the way to a great economy!

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