Under Senate Bill 39, Wasilla Republican Sen. Mike Shower proposes using blockchain technology to support the state voting system.
Furthermore, the bill seeks to increase voter participation by allowing people to use their tribal IDs for voter identification. At the same time, the technology would help in fixing errors that would bar people from voting.
However, the bill’s first version was a center of controversy for ending automatic voter registration through the permanent fund dividend application. The new bill has eliminated the clause.
I think using tribal IDs for voting identification is great. I’m not sure if blockchain voting will make it though.
The U.S. has imposed sanctions against Russia for election interference and its role in the devastating cyberattack known as SolarWinds.
Andrew Orr joins host Kelly Guimont to discuss (good) Security Friday news, including an in-depth look at phone scammers and tactics to stop them.
Tim Cook suggested smartphone voting as a way to expanding voting access to Americans. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose says it’s “preposterous.”
The US sub-committee on economic and consumer policy sent a letter [PDF] to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki about its app for kids, saying it’s full of “inappropriate… highly commercial content”.
According to the letter, some videos appeared to be “smuggling in hidden marketing and advertising with product placements by children’s influencers”.
The letter claimed that one research team, which it did not name, found only about 4% of videos had a high educational value. Much of the rest was low quality content such as toy unboxing and videos of people playing video games.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote an argument for the Supreme Court on why digital platforms should be regulated as utilities.
The U.S. is preparing a round of retaliatory tariffs against six countries that have imposed taxes on U.S.-based internet companies.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the creation of a new bureau within the state department for cybersecurity.
In the wake of the SolarWinds cyber attack on the U.S. government, CISA urges agencies to update their software by the end of the year.
The U.S. government is appealing an injunction from S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols that blocked its ban of TikTok.
The Trump administration had raised concerns over the video-sharing app due to its Chinese ownership by way of parent company ByteDance, and the potential risk of TikTok’s U.S. user data being accessed by the Chinese government.
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Judge Nichols in the separate case led by TikTok ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in trying to ban the app from the U.S., referring to the agency’s action as “arbitrary and capricious.”
The U.S. passed a new US$900 Covid relief package and it provides US$1.9 billion to remove Huawei and ZTE equipment from US networks.
The Department of Justice is charging a China-based Zoom executive with aiding the Chinese government to shut down certain Zoom meetings.
A group of Russian hackers known as Cozy Bear has hacked several U.S. government agencies like the Treasury and Commerce departments.
On Sunday night, FireEye said the attackers were infecting targets using Orion, a widely used business software app from SolarWinds. After taking control of the Orion update mechanism, the attackers were using it to install a backdoor that FireEye researchers are calling Sunburst.
Government entities have been using Section 215 of the Patriot Act as justification to collect logs of web browsing activity.
In fact, “one of those 61 orders resulted in the production of information that could be characterized as information regarding browsing,” Mr. Ratcliffe wrote in the second letter. Specifically, one order had approved collection of logs revealing which computers “in a specified foreign country” had visited “a single, identified U. S. web page.”
The CEOs of Facebook, Alphabet, and Twitter will appear before the Senate Commerce Committee tomorrow to speak about Section 230.
A report on Friday says that Apple lobbied Congress through Fierce Government Relations on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
A report on Thursday says that Apple has been lobbying the government for tax breaks as it seeks to build its U.S. chip production.
On Sunday, federal judge Carl Nichols granted a preliminary injunction against a TikTok ban from the Trump administration.
Apple News has a section to help people register to vote, how to become a poll worker in your state, and more.
Max Eddy writes an examination of election engineering and how the U.S. can ensure voting security. The part I think is fascinating is the work of Sam Curry, CSO of cybersecurity company Cybereason. His team has been simulating election attacks to figure out how best to protect our elections.
He’s observed numerous strategies and has advice on how best to protect an election. The people playing the role of defenders, usually given the role of law enforcement, “must create open lines of communication between government departments and also media sources and social media companies,” said Curry. Knowing who to call and when to call them and having a reliable back-up system in case one fails (or is intentionally sabotaged) are all critical.
