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50110	57650	Welcome! Welcome to the DEF CON 28 safe mode. And this is the lounge of Voting Machine Hacking
57650	65330	Village at DEF CON. This is the fourth time we are at DEF CON and this has been... every year
65330	70350	it is a hassle to get everything running. This year we have been doing something we have never
70350	76570	done before. Trying to go virtual in just a few months time. It has been a tremendous
76570	82190	amount of work and so many people have been helping us to get this done.
82650	90270	We are here in Quantico and at Quantico Cyber Hub, Voting Village, along with ICS Village and a
90270	95550	couple of other villages. We are operating our back end from the same central location so that
95550	102150	we can help each other and support each other through this whole exercise. It's very nice,
102150	108110	to be back in DEF CON. This is really a weird experience because we are not meeting in a
108110	114330	meet space instead of in a virtual space. I certainly hope next year we will be able to
114330	121450	again have our controversies, have our disagreements and our wonderful fears over
121450	128010	physical space and do it that way. Before I start to introduce what this year is going to bring,
128010	134650	let me first of all thank Mary Hamlin. She is behind the scenes helping to organize this whole
134650	141290	thing. My two co-organizers will have a little bit of word. Unfortunately, I will need to speak
141290	148090	on behalf of one of the co-organizers because he is home and unfortunately so ill that he
148090	155690	felt that coming to video call is too much a hassle at the moment. But let's start from Maggie
155990	161350	a member of MacAlpha and one of the co-organizers. Maggie, if you want to give a word.
162490	166450	Yeah, thank you all so much for joining us. This is obviously a really crazy year, but
166450	171170	maybe it's going to be a really good year. It's really interesting to see what DEF CON virtual is
171170	176310	like. Obviously, this is a very important year from election perspective. You may have heard there's
176310	181190	going to be an election later this year. So we hope that you will find our talks interesting
181190	187110	and engaging and we hope they will make you want to vote even harder than ever. That is definitely
187110	192030	going to be really important this year. So thank you so much for joining us. Please have patience
192030	196830	as we build this airplane in the sky. We think we've got a really great lineup for you and we're
196830	201310	just we're just really excited to have been able to meet you virtually this year and to just in
201310	206590	general be able to share what we can of the voting village with you. And I'll turn it over to Dan.
206590	213790	Well, the next person to be introduced is Dan Weber. Previous years we have been really running
213790	220210	this mostly out of our own pocket and we haven't had a non-profit of our own to support our
220210	226250	operation. This year it changed. We have finally completed incorporation of non-profits supporting
226250	231430	the Voting Village Election Index Foundation. Dan Weber is a co-organizer of the Voting Village
231430	237810	and also the CEO of our non-profit Election Index Foundation. Dan. Thank you, Laurie. Hey,
237810	243610	guys. It's a pleasure and honor to be here and talk to you guys today. You know, it's really
243610	248570	important this year from Election Integrity, not that it's more important any other year,
248570	252410	but with everything going on in the world and such, you know, there's just a heightened
253310	260450	sensitivity as well as a need to get out there and to volunteer, be part of the process. You know,
260450	264450	if you can get people out to vote, that's great. If you can go and become a poll worker,
264450	269450	that's even more important because, you know, with the aging population and folks and that,
269450	274370	they're just not able to come out. And so, you know, get out there and volunteer for it. You
274370	282270	know, we're very privileged. HBO, if you probably have seen it, is not go to at Voting Village DC
282270	287870	and that you'll find the link. They've opened up the movie Kill Chain, of which both Hari and
287870	295130	Maggie are part of and such, for a free viewing for all of DEF CON. So until Sunday night, 1159,
295650	299590	you know what I'm saying, p.m., they've allowed us to go out and do that. You know, visit us
299590	305390	at Election Integ, which is a Twitter hashtag for it and such, and be part of it. You know,
305390	311870	part of our goal and mission is to continue to do these Voting Villages, to do education,
311870	317510	get out there and teach folks about, you know, cyber security around the election and participate
317510	323490	with other communities and such that are out there. And so, we really appreciate the support
323490	329370	and you bearing with us this year as, you know, we've gone into safe mode with DEF CON here at
329370	337850	the Voting Village. Thanks so much, guys. Hari? Yeah. So, as we are now official
338910	346390	non-profit, we also are doing a little fundraising by selling swag. There's a link in our Discord
347210	353270	where you can choose which kind of swag you might want to buy if you want to support our
353270	359870	ongoing effort to educate people on cyber warfare and cyber security on election and election
359870	365230	security on whole outside of cyber, because we're talking a lot about election security measurements
365230	370310	and educating which are in the physical space instead of cyber space. And a huge shout out to
370310	374530	Mara Williams for doing our art this year. It's really incredible, really beautiful stuff.
375830	382090	And last but not least, I mean, the movie which I mentioned, it was filmed three years
382090	388830	at DEF CON. So, you see a lot of familiar faces from Dark Tangents to Dr. Mouse in the movie. So,
388830	395930	I hope you join in for us. And now, unfortunately, Matt Blaze, one of the co-founders and co-organizers
395930	403290	that he is, he's very excited. We have worked very hard for this. He has been having a
404710	412910	undespecified, hopefully not corona, and he is home in condition that he... I spoke with him
412910	418190	just before this, and he wanted me to express how excited he is and how he's regretting that
418190	424910	at this point of time, he didn't feel that doing a video call would be possible because of
425470	431610	how ill he is. So, we certainly hope a speedy recovery and that everything turns out the best
431610	437250	possible way. And we truly miss that he's not here with us because Matt has always been,
437250	442470	not only for our village, but DEF CON and all the other conferences, such a huge amount of
442470	447650	energy and encouragement and guidance, how to get these things done.
448630	454870	So, this year, because it's election year, and this is an election year, not only in the United
454870	460170	States of America, but in a number of other countries. So, we are so focused in the
460790	465810	everything dominating cycle about US elections that we forgot there are a number of other
465810	476510	important democracies who are equally having a shed water election this year, still this year.
476510	482550	So, let's keep in mind, we are all in this together as a democracy. We all are facing
482550	489490	similar challenges. We all have similar kind of attacks against our systems and our governance.
489490	615800	So, whatever we have to do, we will have a few talks about that, but more about that later.
615800	623200	First of all, I would like to introduce a follow-up of our last year started Unhack the
623200	628300	Ballot initiative. Unhack the Ballot, which we started last year, was never intended to be a
628300	637480	run-off. It was ongoing, and the concept in its heart is to provide election officials,
637480	644900	local election officials, who are under-resourced and have limited access to knowledge and expertise,
644900	651320	access to the local area, willingly patriotic wherever they are, hackers and security researchers
651320	658280	who can provide them information, guidance, advice, valuation of what they have been proposed.
658300	664100	So, we started that last year. Because 2020 is such an important election year for the U.S.,
664100	671480	and we are facing a unique set of problems, we were not preparing the coronavirus. We have to,
671480	678480	right now, a lot of things have to be changed and implemented from practices from another state,
678480	682560	have to be implemented over the board, see how that fits to the local laws and practices.
682560	691120	We started an initiative called CyberSearch. CyberSearch, this year, is starting right now
691120	698300	and ending up the election. This is a one-off initiative and project, making that Unhack the
698300	706520	Ballot as efficient as possible for this election year. We have been calling volunteers, and we
706520	714400	have in the Discord channels for the CyberSearch, both in text and in video. We have been calling
714400	721160	volunteers who want to help their local election officials, and we have obviously offered also
721160	726960	the local election officials who need to have help, to identify themselves and tell us what they
726960	735460	think would be the best resources they would need to have, or want to have. Bearing in mind that
735460	740760	sometimes they don't even know, unfortunately, exactly what they need. But that's part of the
740760	748580	learning experience. We have in our head a false image. We think that there is an election office,
748580	754060	and the election office has an IT department, and the IT department has a secretary of practice.
754440	759080	That is very much not true with most of the United States, and most of the world actually,
759080	767640	especially not most of the U.S. There is an election office, and they might have one or two
767640	775420	IT people part-time, and volunteers. No secretary of practice whatsoever. Security, if it's existing,
775420	780860	is outsourced. It comes from organizations who are volunteering help, like Department of Homeland
780860	786660	Security, or volunteers and companies who are selling them services, but they really don't have
786660	796000	expertise. And if you look, since help America, new technology has been pouring in, you really
796000	801040	just have an IT department who happens to do elections, and not the other way around. So
801040	808100	local election officials need help, and they don't have funds, they don't have resources,
808100	814560	they don't have access to the expertise. So we are here to help and make sure that any way we can,
814560	820080	we will pair knowledge to the people who need to have the knowledge. And local election officials,
820080	825980	they're working really hard. They're good people. They are in an impossible situation.
826260	834180	Impossible situation because of the asymmetric nature of cyber war. Every other war we've fought,
834180	840920	land, sea, underwater, air, space, are natural domains with natural laws of physics. Cyber is a
840920	852020	domain. Inherently asymmetric. And in that environment, they are fighting a war. If you,
852020	857740	if a foreign nation would have a land invasion with the tanks coming to the U.S., you wouldn't
857740	863000	ask the local sheriff, please stop them. In reality, that's what happens in local election
863000	868880	officials. They are the last and only line of defense, massively out-of-pocket, and they are
868880	876640	dealing with the nation-state highly-motivated attacks. So please join us in that initiative
877580	885320	in Discord. Also, please join us in the Election Industry Foundation and tell what the Election
885320	892260	Industry Foundation can do to help you, especially when we move to education, etc. Please join us
892260	899940	with the Kilcheng movie on the movie night. Speaker track will start right after this talk.
900460	906860	And speaker track this year, because we are virtual, we have turned this to be a little bit
906860	912640	different tone than last year's. Last year's, because we, after the talks, we have been able
912640	919060	to have a debate on the hallways and the room, and you can get feedback. There's a lot of
919060	924520	opportunities. We don't have that this year. The speakers have no way of knowing whether the talk
924520	931660	was well-received or not at the time the talk is over or immediately after that, because there's
931660	940100	this one-way street right now in most cases. So we are here to help you. So this year, we have been
940100	948660	deliberately inviting speakers who are proposing or asking comments for ideas, which has been
949220	954320	partially rejected by security companies, controversial speakers who come with a package
955240	964880	and are wanting to have a feedback or are offering a dataset for research. So what we want to do,
964880	970680	we invite, the same way as in DEF CON, we are going to compile, normally at DEF CON, we are compiling
970680	976880	annual report. And in this year, the annual report will have a bigger section about the speaker track
976880	985300	talks than normally is. We are inviting feedback in short form or long form, with your name to be
985300	992400	quoted, with your handle only, or completely anonymous. Feedback, comments, short form,
992400	999660	long form, for all the talks. And from those, we will compile into the annual report for the
999660	1005980	speakers, for the community at large, what were the guidance, what were the thoughts from the
1005980	1014900	greater security community around the world, and especially in the US. So we are welcoming that,
1014900	1019620	and this is something which we saw the opportunity because we go to virtual,
1019620	1024800	where we can do something which we wouldn't have been doing when we were in person.
1025720	1031560	Again, since we are doing this this way, this year, as always, but especially this year,
1031560	1040500	being selected as a speaker is not endorsement by us that we are behind the speaker or the ideas.
1040820	1048320	We don't stand in that. Instead, we're saying there's a lot of things that we need to talk about
1048840	1057320	and what we need to be educating each other. So please provide your feedback. In the case
1057320	1063620	there's a research, please provide your research. We have given you all in the documentation,
1063620	1069220	in the speaker track documentation, and our onboarding guide, links how to find everything.
1069220	1077480	And the idea, again, is you can provide the feedback in any mode, long form, short form,
1077480	1085240	anonymous, handle, or name, or background information without quotation at all.
1085240	1091300	We are actually asking if you want to be quoted, even if you are anonymous. So please provide us
1091300	1097740	feedback. We will compile it. And since we don't have the normal physical hacking going that much,
1097740	1103340	the report will be more about that. We also encourage, because people have from last year,
1103920	1109700	all the things and information which you have extracted from the physical devices we have,
1109700	1115960	all that research is hopefully going to resume. And once there's outcomes of those research,
1115960	1120300	we are more than willing, and we are welcoming, and we are almost begging,
1120300	1129310	we send that information, and we will compile it to our annual report. Last but not least,
1129310	1139030	this year, because of the nature of this pandemic, as it were, we are quickly changing
1139030	1150130	the gears. There have been a lot of debate out on the media, a surge of interest. We have all
1150130	1157530	probably been exposed about the controversy over mail-in balloting. There is, again, these ideas
1157530	1166110	about internet voting, or mobile phone voting, or blockchain voting, ideas which are not only rejected
1166110	1171350	by the security community, but also over and over demonstrated in academic papers and theoretical
1171350	1178370	papers, why this is not an implementation issue, this is a fundamental issue, which we don't think
1178370	1185330	there's a solution in the foreseeable future, how these technologies can be implemented.
1185330	1191450	So we have talks which are explaining how you run elections in this environment,
1192230	1198990	mechanically used to increase the trust, one of those being a paper last week published about
1198990	1206930	how the ballot-marking devices are unauditable, so why that technology, even when it provides a
1206930	1214610	piece of paper, actually is not trustworthy. That would have been a bigger part of the debate if we
1214610	1221390	would be voting more in person, but nevertheless, that is a role in new technology. We will be
1221390	1229550	having talks about tools, how you can check and communicate about your own elections with
1229550	1235790	centralized resources, find out and validate if what you have seen is something which should
1235790	1242050	be further investigated and should be further reported. We are always talking about risk-limiting
1242050	1249690	audits as a method of validating that the outcome of the election has picked up the right winners.
1249690	1257170	Risk-limiting audits is a low-labor mathematical method which allows a huge public participation
1257170	1263150	and transparency. The method is about proving that the election outcome is right, not that
1263150	1269110	every single last vote is counted accurately, because that never happens really, and it doesn't
1269110	1275530	matter if the election is still proven to have right results. And as always, we are going to
1275530	1283030	have conversations about what are all the ways we can do to improve and get this better.
1284210	1293810	So, we have the channels open. I hope, since I'm on the podium, I can pretend 20 minutes ago.
1295010	1304350	We have channels there to ask staff. We are here to help. We can make changes if you have an idea,
1304350	1312010	if you have a project which you want to quickly introduce to other people. We do have a video
1312010	1319750	and voice channels. Contact staff saying, I would like to make a mini-talk, and I have this research
1319750	1326970	project, I have these results, I have this image file I want to look at. Whatever it is you want to
1326970	1336310	do. Ask us, can we do this? Please send us a note. We will figure out the time slot. We will put you
1336310	1341690	into one of the video channels, and we will make announcement on the announcement channel that this
1341690	1348310	new activity is going to be in it. Whatever we can do to help make this more enjoyable for you,
1348310	1355990	make more... leverage your knowledge, make this to be better experience, more educating experience,
1355990	1359770	let us know. Whatever we can do, we are here to help.
1362750	1367710	And again, this is... no one of us has been here before.
1369130	1372130	One thing I can guarantee, this is not going to be a smooth ride.
1373570	1379690	So, bear with us and forgive us in the head that there will be glitches, there will be
1379690	1386590	something going wrong, and if you see something, say something, same as every year. Let us know
1386590	1392210	what went wrong immediately, so that we can try to fix it as it happens. We have a back... hold
1392210	1400050	back infrastructure, enabling us to, in a quite speedy manner, to address a lot of technical
1400050	1406190	issues and address a lot of things which you might come up with. And of course, you know,
1406190	1412970	you have new ideas. So, be active with us, because we want to be active with you,
1412970	1419070	and we are here to help. Without further ado, I probably forgot something I shouldn't say,
1419070	1424750	but without further ado, I hope you have a safe, and you stay safe, you have a safe
1425570	1428710	2028, safe month. Thank you.