Facebook joins forces with Harvard to thwart election hacking

Selene Kyle
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read

Facebook just announced it’s going to provide initial funding of $500,000 for a project called Defending Digital Democracy. The project is led by the former campaign chairs for Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney and targets to resist interference from outside in elections.

Earlier this month, The Belfer Center at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University announced this project. It will be heading up by Co-Director of the Belfer Center and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Eric Rosenbach.

“Americans across the political spectrum agree that political contests should be decided by the power of ideas, not the skill of foreign hackers. Cyber deterrence starts with strong cyber defense — and this project brings together key partners in politics, national security, and technology to generate innovative ideas to safeguard our key democratic institutions,” said Rosenbach in a Harvard press release.

Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos

The project was announced during Black Hat, the annual security event took place in Las Vegas. In an interview with Reuters, Alex Stamos, Facebook’s Chief Security Officer said:

Right now we are the founding sponsor, but we are in discussions with other tech organizations. The goal for our money specifically is to help build a standalone ISAO (Information Sharing and Analysis Organization) that pulls in all the different groups that have some kind of vulnerability.

Moreover, the social network has plans to invest in education by teaming up with CodePath, a training company offering free education for engineers.

The TechNews

Selene Kyle

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