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Google and Jigsaw to Provide Cyber Security to Election Organizers

Cyber security network concept, Man using smartphone with lock networking virtual screen.
Tech giant Google and cyber security firm Jigsaw will be working together to provide cyber security solutions to election organizers.

Google has recently come under criticism after failing to stop the upsurge of fake news on social media.

Not only was the tech giant reprimanded for allowing extremist groups to freely spread propaganda via their networks, but they also faced mass desertion after failing to remove their advertisements on videos with hateful views, extremist propaganda, and fake news.

Their partnership with the Alphabet-funded firm Jigsaw is a move that will not only improve the cyber security for various election organizations, but will also be crucial in rebuilding their tarnished reputation.

Although the cyber security firm is entirely independent of Google, it is funded by Alphabet Inc., making it inclined to collaborate with the tech firm on occasion when working on large-scale projects.

Protect Your Election

Cyber security during election periods has been previously portrayed as flimsy if last year’s US Presidential Election is a benchmark to reference.

The breach of the Democratic Party’s email servers was one that was more far-reaching and more consequential than had initially been thought, and the two Alphabet Inc. subsidiaries are determined not to see a repeat of that unsightly saga.

Google.com homepage and cursor on the screen. Google is world's most popular search engine
Google has recently come under criticism after failing to stop the upsurge of fake news on social media.

Making good on this determination, Google stated that it will be ramping up personnel and reevaluating its policies in reaction to its failures in advertising on hate-related content.

The attacks have not been limited to political parties, however.

In a span of seven years, six countries have had their electoral processes interfered with due to sub-par cyber security measures.

Election monitors, organizers, and independent news organizations have taken the brunt of the campaign period attacks in Myanmar, Montenegro, Malaysia, Mexico, Ecuador, and now the Netherlands as well.

Even worse, the low-funded civic groups responsible for conducting and overseeing free and fair elections in their countries are often left with thousands of dollars in bills as a result of these unrelenting, high-volume DDoS attacks at crucial points during their respective elective processes.

The cyber security services package will be offered free of charge to organizations and individuals involved in the upcoming national elections in Germany, France, and South Korea, and is set to be integrated into subsequent elections all over the world if it proves to be a successful initiative.

It will offer baseline protection for human rights websites, news websites, and election information and monitoring websites from DDoS attacks, according to a spokesperson from Jigsaw.

As for the candidates and campaign officials involved in the electoral process, the newly released package will offer dual-password protecting tools but not anti-DDoS protection.

Worth noting is that the services offered in Protect Your Election has already been in the market for the last year under the title of Project Shield.

While the Protect Your Election package of services is being specifically offered to organizations with low budgets, Project Shield was utilized predominantly by news organizations.

The complete range of services offered by the new suite is available here.

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