Democracy in Danger

How Hackers and Activists Exposed Fatal Flaws in the Election System

By (author) Jake Braun

Publication date:

15 November 2019

Length of book:

176 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781538135846

Protecting the Vote

When cybersecurity expert Jake Braun challenged hackers at DEFCON, the largest hacking conference in the world, to breach the security of an American voting machine, a hacker in Europe conquered the task in less than 2 minutes. From hacking into voting machines to more mundane, but no less serious problems, our democracy faces unprecedented tests from without and within. In Democracy In Danger, Braun, a veteran of 3 presidential campaigns and former White House Liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, reveals what the national security apparatus, local election administrators, and political parties have gotten wrong about election security and what America needs to do to protect the ballot box in 2020 and beyond.

Introduction

1. Table Setting: The Putin Problem
2. Clusterf*ck
3. Mandela-Level Turnout
4. Reset?
5. Same-Old-Same-Old or Something New?
6. Here Come the Hackers
7. “You Have to Sit on Those Boxes”
8. “We Have No Evidence”: DEF CON
9. “Child’s Play”
10. Cyber Politics
Epilogue
Notes
Index
About the Author

While much has been written about the role of Russian propaganda, Democracy in Danger focuses instead on Russia’s hacking of voting systems across the United States, erasing voters from voter registration databases and hacking the websites of several secretaries of state. Written as a first-person narrative but packed with information, the book uses Braun’s background and expertise to stress the importance of securing our voting systems. . . . Democracy in Danger is a harrowing account of just how unprepared states were, and remain, to stop election-crippling Russian hacks. It explains the problem in thorough and clear detail, with a call to action to protect the fundamentals of American democracy. This is a good and important work.