We’re roughly two weeks out from Election Day in America, although millions of early and mail-in votes have already been cast. In the coming days, there’s sure to be a flurry of news stories about disinformation, allegations of voter fraud, the back-and-forth between parties and talks of when the results can be trusted, and someone can call the presidential race.
While Cisco Talos can’t provide you all the answers, we can at least give you an idea of what American election officials at the state, local and national levels are currently facing. We at Talos and elsewhere across Cisco Secure have released several research papers, blog posts, graphics, videos and more discussing election security and disinformation this year.
Here’s a complete list of everything we’ve covered so far. Please share this information with friends, family members and colleagues as we all try to keep up with the news cycle between now and Nov. 3 (and likely far beyond that).
- What to expect when you’re electing: Talos’ 2020 election security primer — The first research paper in our series, this outlines our major findings after spending months researching election security and talking to experts and election officials.
- What to expect when you're electing: The building blocks of disinformation campaigns — Insights into how threat actors start, maintain and grow disinformation and fake news campaigns.
- What to expect when you're electing: Information hygiene and the human levers of disinformation— Why disinformation works on voters and advice for detecting intentionally misleading blog posts, memes and social media posts.
- Roundtable video: Disinformation and election security — A recorded discussion between Talos and Cisco Secure researchers on disinformation campaigns, state-sponsored actors and the additional complications that come with the COVID-19 pandemic.
- What to expect when you’re electing: Voter recommendations — Some easy-to-share tips for anyone to avoid disinformation campaigns and stay sane during the election cycle. These apply to anyone from the security expert to your grandparents.
- What to expect when you're electing: How election officials can counter disinformation — Advice for local, state and national election officials on how to keep Americans’ faith in the election process and counter disinformation actors’ efforts.
We also have a few handy graphics that help make it easier to share this information on social media and elsewhere to your friends and family. These should be helpful to any voter or anyone connected to the elections.