Episode 172: Securing the Election Supply Chain

In this episode of the podcast (#172), Jennifer Bisceglie, the founder and CEO of Interos to talk about the links between America’s voting infrastructure and countries with a history of trying to subvert democracy.

With an election year upon us, the media’s attention has swung back the vexing issue of election security. Given the documented interference by Russia in the 2016 presidential election and anomalies in the performance of electronic voting systems in both 2016 and 2018, as well as the recent UK Parliamentary elections, both government and watchdog groups worry about foreign actors tampering with election results in crucial (“swing”) districts.

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Supply chain: the unseen election risk

But efforts to secure voting systems at election time can only go so far, according to research released this month from the firm Interos. The company found that one fifth (20%) of the hardware and software components in a popular voting machine came from suppliers in China. Furthermore, close to two-thirds (59%) of components in that voting machine came from companies with locations in both China and Russia.

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Heightened awareness of supply chain risk

The study comes as the U.S. government and Trump Administration are issuing guidance to private sector firms and government agencies to steer clear of hardware and software from countries with a history of spying and espionage within the U.S., including hardware giants like the Chinese firm Huawei.

In this week’s podcast, we sat down with Jennifer Bisceglie, the founder and CEO of Interos to talk about the links between America’s voting infrastructure and countries with a history of trying to subvert democracy.

In this conversation, Jennifer and I also talk about the larger issue of supply chain risk, which Bisceglie says goes well beyond cyber security, encompassing ethical sourcing, environmental risks and more.

As always,  you can check our full conversation in our latest Security Ledger podcast at Blubrry. You can also listen to it on iTunes and check us out on SoundCloud, Stitcher, Radio Public and more. Also: if you enjoy this podcast, consider signing up to receive it in your email. Just point your web browser to securityledger.com/subscribe to get notified whenever a new podcast is posted.