SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, said the United States government has not done enough to defend the 2020 election from Russian interference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With primary season now in full swing, Stavridis laid out a path forward for Washington, campaigns and the American public to guard against election hacks this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with Fifth Domain Feb. 26 at the RSA Conference, Stavridis laid out three steps. They include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pass election security bills<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stavridis called on Congress to pass several \u201cvery good\u201d pieces of legislation relating to election security. The former NATO commander pointed to the \u201cDefending Elections against Trolls from Enemy Regimes,” or DETER Act, to be passed into law. The DETER Act would prevent a foreigner from entering the United States if it was determined that the person planned to interfere in elections. The bill passed the Senate in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another bill Stavridis wants to become law is the Stopping Harmful Interference in Elections for a Lasting Democracy Act, or SHIELD Act, which requires political committees to report to the FBI and Federal Election Commission any unlawful offers for election assistance from abroad. That bill passed the House in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The House also passed the Securing America\u2019s Federal Elections Act in June. That bill, which Stavridis specifically mentioned, would establish grant programs and requirements for paper ballots and voting systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCongress has to step up, recognize the challenge and apportion resources,\u201d Stavridis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Educate the public<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Russian influence operations in 2016 misled the American public with deluge of misinformation, Stavridis said voters need to be more vigilant in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs voters, we need to be better educated and more deeply skeptical about what we\u2019re being fed,” Stavridis told Fifth Domain. \u201cAnd this is the only counter to that high level strategic set of hoaxes, fake news that Russia is going to put into it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Implement end-to-end encryption<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stavridis told Fifth Domain that government agencies and campaigns need to ensure they have end-to-end encryption on their devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of the threat stream in this election hacking will be around email, and transfer of files and transfer of data,\u201d he said. Stavridis sits on the board of an end-to-end encryption company called PreVeil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Adm. James Stavridis has suggestions for the public and politicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":63128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"8":{"categories":[],"primary_category":""}}},"categories":[4109,106,29,32,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3252],"class_list":["post-28631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-smr"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3ONLCBNMSVGE3MJWJEB4Y4L3BQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/show-reporters\/rsa\/2020\/02\/28\/former-nato-chief-has-3-tips-to-secure-2020-election\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n