Recently Google and YouGov conducted a survey* of high risk users across ten markets and these are the results from the US including people in the political sector and journalists. Google shared the data with Defending Digital Campaigns since protecting campaigns and tech users in the political sector is a shared goal.

Google is one of DDC’s prime partners in protecting campaigns. Google distributes free Titan Security Keys to eligible entities through DDC and has funded DDC’s widely available training efforts. Today, Google has also released a blog describing the ways they are working to protect campaigns during the midterms.

The purpose of the survey was to:

“ to understand how those working in these professions feel about the cyber threats posed to them, how these threats have evolved, and what they are doing to protect themselves.”

The learnings are important as we head into election season.

These technology users show high awareness about the risk:

Eighty-three percent believe that the threat of cyber attacks on them has increased in the last two years
Fifty-nine percent believe that their professions make them more likely to be a target of hacking or phishing
Seventy-three percent believe the risk is a result of increasingly sophisticated hacking/phishing techniques

Their concerns are not theoretical:

Forty-one percent report having had digital accounts hacked or accessed by others without permission in the last 12 months alone
For those in the political sector the number was significantly higher with 82% reporting digital accounts hacked or accessed

And the cybersecurity incidents have an impact: 51% believe increased threats have made their jobs harder to do.

It’s not all bad news as there was significant understanding among respondents about what protective measures would enhance their cybersecurity and many had taken action. There were differences between the political sector participants and the journalists:

Forty-four percent of the political sector respondents preferred the use of multifactor authentication or a security key, and 44% use unique passwords.
Journalists shared unique passwords as a preventive measure with 59% reporting they do and 54% report using multifactor authentication or a security key.

At Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC), we believe that everyone associated with a political campaign is at higher risk. The high number of political respondents in this survey that report account hacks or unauthorized access bears that out. Protecting accounts both campaign related and personal is critical. The basic tools of self protection–multifactor authentication coupled with a security key and password managers–are readily available and easy to implement . They are baseline, core protections for everyone in the campaign space.

DDC can help. You can learn about multifactor authentication and how to turn it on for key accounts like email and social as well as the free easy to use browser based password managers in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox at DDC’s Knowledge Base. DDC also has free security keys for eligible campaigns. Our training program covers everything you need to know about securing yourself, your campaign, or your organization. Go ahead and register today.

Gearing up for the 2022 elections is not just about putting the pieces in place to win an election. It needs to include implementing cybersecurity protections in an environment that is bound to see increased threats.

Michael Kaiser
President and CEO

*Google, in partnership with YouGov, surveyed 705 respondents (350 politicos and 355 journalists) across ten markets: UK, US, BRU, CAN, FR, DE, IT, NL, PL & ES, with the research taking place between 26 October and 1 December 2021