Officials around the United States have spent the last three years scrambling to harden election and voting infrastructure against the disinformation campaigns, phishing attacks, and system probing that plagued 2016. With exactly one year to go until the 2020 presidential election, local and state boards of election have made significant progress on improving digital defenses. But researchers and election integrity advocates continue to sound the alarm that some of the most important changes—like replacing insecure voting machines and hiring necessary personnel—can't happen without more funding from Congress. And the scores of free cybersecurity offerings that have cropped up from tech companies to fill the void ultimately can't substitute for those resource-intensive projects.
Free and low-cost election cybersecurity tools are gaining visibility, though, as a way for small or under-funded election groups to make some meaningful improvements. They are particularly suited in some ways to aid campaigns, which are lightweight, temporary organizations by nature. But in addition to their limitations for dealing with deeper problems, it's unclear how widely these low-cost tools are adopted, perhaps in part because it's difficult to determine which offerings are safe and effective.
"I’ve heard election officials in particular say that they are bombarded with offers from private vendors to help with cybersecurity, and often feel like they have no basis for determining who to trust," says Lawrence Norden, deputy director of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program at New ..
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