Security & U.S. Political Campaigns: A Study & Expert Roundtable

Note: Presentation times are in Pacific Standard Time (PST).

Monday, February 01, 2021 - 7:45 am8:15 am

Sunny Consolvo, Google

Abstract: 

"Security and politics should be separate... If you're a candidate, you should win or lose on your best day, based on who you are. Not because your email got popped and posted online by a [nation-state cybersecurity team]." –A study participant

Data breaches and hacking in the 2016 election cycle increased awareness of security vulnerabilities among political workers, but campaigns have not yet adequately adapted to the threats. Improving campaign security is a nonpartisan issue that is an important part of preserving democratic institutions. We will share research we conducted to understand the security practices, challenges, and perceptions of people involved in politics, with a focus on U.S. campaigns across the political spectrum. We will provide recommendations to help the audience learn how to help improve the security of campaigns and help protect democracy.

Sunny Consolvo, Google

Sunny Consolvo is a researcher at Google where her focus is on security, privacy, and anti-abuse topics. She led Google's Security & Privacy UX team for several years. In recent work, she has investigated the security and privacy practices of people involved with political campaigns, survivors of intimate partner abuse, people facing financial insecurity, and explored the technology experiences of women in South Asia. Prior to Google, Sunny worked at Intel Labs Seattle where she investigated how to use mobile technologies to encourage wellness and to help people be more aware of the privacy implications of sensing and inference systems.

Sunny was recently elected to the SIGCHI Academy. She has received a test-of-time award, three 10-year impact awards, and many best paper awards. She has been featured in the press, including Wired and Scientific American Mind. Sunny received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington. She is a member of the Editorial Board for IEEE Pervasive Computing, the Steering Committee for the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, and she became a Certified Information Privacy Professional (US) in 2013.

BibTeX
@conference {264094,
author = {Sunny Consolvo},
title = {Security \& {U.S}. Political Campaigns: A Study \& Expert Roundtable},
year = {2021},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = feb
}

Presentation Video