Thread by @ericgeller

Election security panel starting now at #ICCS2019. NSA chief Paul Nakasone spotted in the first row of the audience. Anne Neuberger, soon to be chief of NSA's new Cyber Directorate, is on the panel.

Also on the panel is ES&S VP of security Chris Wlaschin. He chairs the election technology industry's coordinating body. He says the coordination between industry and government "is having a measurable difference" for election security.

Former NSC and FBI cyber official Anthony Ferrante, now at FTI Consulting, says he's been meeting with election officials and they all tell him they need more help from the government.

Ferrante: "I met with one election official … they said they tally their votes by hand and they email them to the secretary of state. They had no idea that email can be intercepted and manipulated."

Yiiiiiiiiiikes.

For some reason, this election security panel includes a VC named Bradley Tusk, who has no cybersecurity expertise that I'm aware of but is enthusiastically advocating for mobile voting and saying paper ballots are unwieldy. #ICCS2019

Naturally, he has a financial interest in mobile voting. fastcompany.com/90262632/so-wh…

Now Tusk is saying, “The focus has to not just be on security, but a lot more on access and a lot more on turnout.”

This is a panel about election security. I genuinely do not understand what he's doing here.

#ICCS2019

Basically Ferrante, Neuberger, Wlaschin, and the moderator of this panel are having one conversation and Tusk is having another with himself.

Neuberger is already a pro at not answering loaded questions. I just asked if the NSA sees the decentralized U.S. election system as an advantage or a liability for election security. She pivoted to talking about the need to educate states/locals on adversary behavior. #ICCS2019