Justice Department unveils strategy to fight election meddling, cybercrime
In addition to foreign influence campaigns, the report also covers the more prosaic cybercrime schemes that prosecutors and agents deal with on a daily basis. Chapter 2 discusses the types of cybercrime that the department investigates, from distributed denial-of-service attacks to ransomware infections. Chapter 3 explains how the government fights back, including prosecution tools like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, techniques like surveillance of suspects and other response options like dismantling botnets. Chapter 4 describes the government’s private-sector partnerships, information-sharing channels and interagency response plans. And Chapter 5 explains how different DOJ components are training and retaining cybersecurity experts.
Chapter 6 lays out the challenges for cybercrime investigations and prosecutions. Among them are the reticence of victims to report breaches, the government’s sometimes tense relationship with security researchers and gaps in DOJ’s legal authority to access data controlled by foreign companies.
Another problem relevant to election security is that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act only empowers DOJ to prosecute people who hack internet-connected devices.
“In many conceivable situations, electronic voting machines will not meet those criteria, as they are typically kept off the Internet,” the report notes. “Consequently, should hacking of a voting machine occur, the government would not, in many conceivable circumstances, be able to use the CFAA to prosecute the hackers.”
See the full story here: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/19/justice-department-election-meddling-cybercrime-strategy-700236