In-brief: Russian hackers aren’t the biggest threat to the security and integrity of elections says Bev Harris of Black Box Voting. Instead, it’s a more common enemy: run of the mill political corruption, mostly at the local level. Also: Eric Hodge of CyberScout talks about the challenges of helping states secure their election systems. Problem number one: recalcitrant voting machine makers.
In-brief: is it ever the case that things happen that “nobody saw coming”? Our guest on this week’s podcast would say “no.” He is Richard Clarke, a former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism for the United States and a veteran of four administrations, from President Ronald Reagan through to President George W. Bush. We talk about modern-day Cassandras: people who are warning about looming catastrophes, mostly in vain.
In-brief: a story claiming more than 100,000 hack attempts on South Carolina’s election systems raises more questions than it answers about efforts to tamper with the U.S.’s voting systems.
In-brief: A crippling cyber attack that could damage and destroy equipment needed to keep the lights on in major US cities is already possible. The only thing that’s lacking is a motive to carry out such an attack, according to our guest on this week’s podcast: Joe Weiss, a Managing Partner at Applied Control Solutions, LLC and a persistent, if lonely, voice calling for an overhaul of cyber security for the U.S. electric grid.
In-brief: Experts from two security firms are warning that a newly discovered piece of malware dubbed Crash Override is designed to shut down and even damage electrical substations and other components of the electrical grid.
