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10240	17220	Closest friends of the voting village, this is Michael Moore, the CISO from the Secretary of
17220	22620	State of Arizona, and we are so lucky to have him. We're so grateful for him to be here. He's
22620	27380	going to be doing his presentation called Divided We Fall, and please give a warm,
27380	38570	warm, warm welcome for Michael Moore. Hey everybody, how you doing? Everybody doing
38570	43530	okay? Can everybody hear me okay? All right, we've got some audio stuff that we might work
43530	47390	out. There might be a little bit of reverb at times. I'm going to be playing some audio for
47390	51570	you later. It's going to be coming from that device, so please be patient if you can't hear
51570	55850	it. We have some solutions in place. You may have to come forward and huddle and hear it,
55850	61470	but I want to make sure that everybody can hear it. So this is Divided We Fall. Last year,
61470	65430	united we stand. This is sort of the Empire Strikes Back of the conversation, right? I hope
65430	70670	you're doing great today. We're going to bring it down a little bit and then hopefully above where
70670	77050	you were. Also, my goal is wherever you are on the spectrum in your confidence in elections,
77050	82730	I want to shift you towards more confident from the place where if you have threatened an election
82730	90990	official, I'm not giving you legal advice, but please say you're sorry. It's for real. It's a
90990	96750	detriment to democracy and it's just unacceptable. Also, if you're thinking about sending a death
96750	100050	threat to an election official, I want you to understand there's repercussions for that. You
100050	104750	could lose your freedom. Don't do it. It's an attack on democracy. It's completely unacceptable
104750	111210	and it's cowardly. If you have your doubts about elections, I want you to feel more comfortable
111210	117090	that there's people taking it seriously, that they are trying to implement solutions, that we're
117090	122330	doing communications between different organizations, that we're taking security
122330	128470	seriously. I'm here today. There's multiple people from my sector here today, both in the vendor
128470	135290	space and election operations, talking with academics, talking with researchers. We care
135290	141330	about the vulnerabilities being found in these systems. We're working with the vendors to make
141330	147130	sure that patches are developed and implement them in a timely manner. So, this might be a
147130	154410	sound check. That's going to be the audio. So, if you have some difficulties hearing it...
154410	160910	all right. So, as Kat mentioned, I am the CISO with the Arizona Secretary of State's office. I'm
160910	166750	also formally the information security officer for Maricopa County. I've gone from working there
166750	171310	to now they're my biggest customer. Just a few stats real quick to give you an idea of the
171310	178410	threat landscape here. So, Arizona has approximately 4.2 million voters. My party is the one who is in
178410	184990	dominant control. That's the party of no affiliation. Shorthand is independents, but technically
184990	190750	it's no party affiliation. It's the largest majority in Arizona with about 1.45 million.
190750	197610	Next up is Republicans with 1.44 million. Democrats are at 1.26 million. And the new no labels party
197610	204870	is 8.5 thousand. So, as you can see, it's about a third, third, third split there, right? Democrats,
204870	210830	Republicans tied. Independents in the lead. We have become a purple state. People split their
210830	216530	votes. I split my vote. When I see a Republican that I believe does a good job, I vote for them.
216530	222150	When I see a Democrat that I believe does a good job, I vote for them. So, that has made elections
222370	232130	a little bit more less predictable, let's say, right? So, we've seen a lot of conflicts,
232130	239780	and I think this is part of it. Maricopa is large, right? It's 60% of the population of Arizona.
240250	248210	Maricopa is bigger than the population of 24 states. It has more employees than the smallest
248210	256130	county in Arizona has citizens. So, this means we are a large target, but we also have more
256130	260730	resources in Maricopa County. Forgive me if I say we, I'm not the Secretary of State's office,
260730	268110	but I just came from Maricopa. They were the only county that had a dedicated information
268110	274710	security officer. They have a whole information security team at a central IT department that
274710	280410	supports elections in the other county departments. Some counties are so small,
280410	290500	they do not have a single IT person. Thank you. Also, Arizona has 15 counties, right? Versus,
290500	295940	if you compare it against someone like Georgia, that is 159 counties. And just a quick audio
295940	299840	check. Are you guys getting massive feedback, or am I just kind of, you're doing great. Awesome.
299840	306340	Okay. So, moving on. I want to make sure that you understand this before we get going. I'm going to
306340	311680	play live death threats for you. If that's not your jam, and you don't want to hear death threats,
311680	316240	or you need to step out because it's too much, you've been forewarned, please come back,
316240	320500	because I'm going to go into the controls and defenses that we have in place for this afterwards.
320580	326020	But you're going to see explicit threats directed to election officials. You're going to hear
326020	331180	voicemail directed to election officials. At a certain point, I'm going to be quoting people,
331180	334660	and I'm going to start swearing. So, I don't think any of you are made of glass, but there's going to
334660	340800	be a little bit of effing and juffing. So, after we go through the threats, go low, I want to bring
340800	346300	you back up, we're going to go through all of the threat hunting, threat reporting, the intelligence
346300	350700	sharing we're doing in our communities, talk about social media lockdown training that we're providing
350700	356540	to our election officials, and the voter education that we're trying to get out to people to make
356540	362120	them feel more confident in elections. And I'll leave you with my recommendations for you. Spoiler
362120	370380	alert, top recommendation is be a poll worker. So, this is the one election threat that I'm going to
370380	378660	show on this deck that is not relative to Arizona. Everything else is Arizona. This is from Caitlin
378660	385140	Jones, 25. She sent a series of text messages to an official's personal cell phone containing threats
385140	390820	to injure the official and the official's minor child. Her text messages to the official included
390820	398720	graphic photographs of a bloody, deceased, nude, mutilated woman lying on the ground, as well as a
398720	405340	photograph of the official's minor child. Quote, fucking with elections is terrorism, and us
405340	411100	Americans clearly don't tolerate terrorists. So, yes, you should be afraid, your daughter should be
411100	417360	afraid, and so should your husband. Jones also made posts on the Instagram account for the official
417360	422680	that contains threats to injure the official and the official's minor child. For example, she posted
422680	428140	it on the account that the official's minor child was beautiful, and it would be a shame if something
428140	437540	happened to her. She could see up to 10 years in prison. Here is a particularly disturbing series
437540	455890	of voicemails that my boss has received, Secretary Adrian Fontes. Yeah, audio problems. Yeah, do we
455890	459470	have our IT guy ready to do audio?
497810	501750	As you can't hear it? Do you want my audio?
501750	552220	Wait till the first, the first day as a motherfucker. You should be shot in the head for being a traitor. Fuck you.
556950	557810	Check, check, check.
559430	562910	All right, testing. Are we good? No feedback? All right.
564050	568450	While the office regularly receives threats, this is an example generating some of the most concern
568450	571690	because it specifically involves members of the Secretary's family.
572190	576150	So imagine if you were in his position. I don't want to speak for him,
576150	580010	but if you're an elected official, are you getting feedback? Because I'm getting massive feedback.
580850	591990	Check, test, test, test, test. Check, test, test, test. Microphone testing. One, two, three.
596470	606580	Test, test, test. Check, test, test, test. Tell me what you want. Check, test, test, test, test.
607820	617640	Test, test, test, test. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. Nice.
619940	623020	So dipping and diving takes you a little bit out of the experience right there,
623020	627700	but apologies. And just as an FYI, folks, there's also a pre-recorded version of this. So
627700	631760	if there's any part of this that you want to share with other people or that you missed,
631760	634840	you're going to be able to get to it on the Voting Villages website.
634840	640600	So as I was saying, imagine you're an elected official. You did not sign up for this.
640600	646620	You're receiving this level of hate. You know, would you want to do this job?
650120	654940	Next up, we have Walter Lee Hunstra. He's a Missouri public school employee.
654940	658720	He was the technology director there. I'm going to need the audio up front
659340	660800	for the next piece, please.
683150	689450	So I see you're for fair and competent elections. That's what it says here on your home page for
689450	694950	your recorder position you're trying to fly here. But you call
696710	701690	things unhinged and insane lies when there's a forensic audit going on.
701690	705750	You need to check yourself. You need to do your fucking job right,
705750	708970	because other people from other states are watching your ass.
709150	713010	You fucking renege on this deal or give them any more troubles,
713010	716890	your ass will never make it to your next little board meeting.
727300	730820	Four or five. Check, check. Awesome. Here we go again.
731200	734560	So this doesn't happen in isolation. Why did this gentleman
734560	743260	call from the Missouri region, a recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona to threaten his life?
743860	749020	This is a trend that we've seen. Many people say my elections are fine in my area. It's
749020	753680	the other ones that I don't trust. So we see people threatening across borders.
758850	762990	All right, we're good on audio. Thank you very much. I appreciate your help. We're good.
764510	770750	Next up, we have Francis Frederick Goltz, aka Free Speech Master. An update on him. He's pled
770750	776770	guilty and I believe he has been assigned five years in prison. He's a Canadian citizen living
776770	781550	in the United States in Texas, and I believe it's being discussed if he's going to be deported for
781550	787690	the threats that he's made. Here are some posts from him. He calls for a real holocaust. Hypothetically,
787810	791970	a mass shooting of poll workers and election officials in these highly suspect precincts
791970	796390	might be the way to go. It would be a shame if someone talked to his children. There are some
796390	802250	crazies out there. This kind of info shouldn't be readily available on the internet. This is from
802250	808370	the Gateway Pundit. If you don't know what the Gateway Pundit is, I envy you. It's an alternative
809110	816990	news media that frequently posts articles that disparage elections, frequently with nothing
816990	823510	resembling any kind of evidence or proof. They just make wild claims and harass election officials.
823850	829070	So this article is Rogue Rhino. Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer violated two laws, blah,
829070	836730	blah, blah. And Gateway Pundit also does not, in any way it seems, moderate the comments section
836730	844150	of their post. So a good half of the death threats that we see are just in these articles. It's a
845450	849030	a place where this energy can feed off of each other.
849290	854050	And you can see Free Speech Master posted, we need to get this fucker any way we can.
855570	861330	Here is another series. He's got a wife that's a lawyer too. We need to find out her name and
861330	867070	where she works. I don't think he has kids, but I'm not 100% sure on that. And then from someone
867070	873490	else, Pelosi Stock, she says, kids are off limits. He responds, no, nothing is off limits. It's people
873490	877510	like you that are supposedly with us. We don't have the stomach to do whatever it takes to get
877510	882650	our country back. That's why we lose. They've come after our kids every way possible, and you have
882650	887030	some aversion to targeting theirs? Thanks for letting me know, but foxhole, I don't want you in.
887030	895210	She responds, okay, join me in Maricopa ASAP, let's go. So it's interesting that
896510	902450	this second person has no problem with the idea of death threats to election officials and the
902450	907810	idea of acting on them. It's just kids is an arbitrary line for them. We see this frequently,
907810	912410	any type of cooling off, any type of like, hey, maybe we shouldn't do this. It's met with
912410	921550	aggression. So here's another series that we found. I believe this one was on Telegram.
921970	927330	Hang them all. This has to stop. Nothing changes if nothing changes. I think burning them at the
927330	934550	stake is more appropriate. Unless people dangle from the rope, justice is not served. Treason,
934550	940650	on live TV so all can see. Yes, a plan that includes kicking down some doors and crafting
940650	946150	some skulls like the rotten eggshells they are. Fry them all. Corrupt elections equals treason.
946150	952150	Treason is a frequent claim that's made. The implication there is always treason is punishable
952150	957210	by death. So if you are continuously saying someone is guilty of treason, you're implying
957210	963730	that they should be put to death. Traitors all need to pay a traitor's price. And if guilty,
963730	967610	which I think these commies are, I want to see them dangle from a rope until their feet quit
967610	972590	wriggling. And the gif you can see in the background was just the body of one of the
972590	983640	posts as well. And this is from patriots.win. Why are you so negative? Nothing has changed
983640	987880	except now they're exposed. They will lose. There's way, way more of us than them. We have
987880	992920	several options. And each option should be explored. If none works, then we have the final
992920	999560	solution. This is just the beginning. Here is Stephen Richer from Maricopa County Reporter's
999560	1004220	Office. From here on out, Stephen deserves to eat phlegm in his restaurant food. He deserves
1004380	1009900	a lot more than that. He has a lead deficiency that needs to be remedied. So again, encoded
1009900	1015900	speech. A lead deficiency. What do you guys think that means? Right? What's made of lead? Bullets.
1015900	1021840	He should be shot. No jury box. No voting box. Where's the ammo box, you fucking pussies?
1021840	1025620	Don't you realize you'll have a lot more to lose when the country is actually gone and you can't
1025620	1030840	do shit about it? Fucking morons. Won't do it alone, brother. People gotta suffer before anyone
1030840	1035500	gets used to the idea that we have to shoot our way out of this at some point. And this next one
1035500	1040260	is a particular concern of me. The military, spec ops, have the training and resources, especially
1040260	1044720	ex-members. They're the ones that should be doing this first period. This is a call to action
1044720	1051460	from people, the military, former military veterans. We see that frequently. Veterans
1051460	1055860	are targeted and called to action that they should do something about it. Why won't anyone
1055860	1061040	do a thing about this? You know, the idea of why won't someone rid me of this meddlesome priest,
1061040	1068940	right? Mob boss type speak. Calling for action. Needs to be arrested for treason and executed.
1068940	1079520	This faggot will hang. Alright, next up. We had a former employee who no longer worked for us.
1079820	1083940	She was named in an election conspiracy theory event. She's someone who oversaw
1083940	1089160	signature verification, the process by which when you have an absentee ballot
1090020	1093740	or a mail-in ballot, we review the signature. She's the one who oversaw the...
1093740	1099260	They claimed that the signature verification process was compromised. Since she oversaw it
1099260	1105340	and she left, she must either be complicit or paid or forced to disappear. As a direct
1105340	1109440	result of this event in person, we saw this series of communications.
1111900	1119880	So where is her name? Former election and her position of Maricopa County. Some claim that
1119880	1125260	she's a former FBI agent. Could she be at home? And then you can see they doxed her.
1125360	1128260	And this is her address. This is her information that we've redacted.
1128640	1132640	Someone responds, is this for real? If so, this is the moment we've been waiting for.
1132640	1136320	Once these scumbags start fleeing, we know for sure the good guys are kicking butt.
1136400	1140780	And another response, bang bang. What do you think that means? That is an implied death threat.
1140940	1145440	So it is trivial to find addresses online and it's something we're still working to respond.
1145440	1150200	You guys getting feedback again? I don't know if it's, I'm too close. Can you hear me? Check,
1150200	1157400	check, check, check, test, test, test. All right. So she reached out to us after the fact
1159360	1165080	and she fortunately wasn't home, but there were people that were banging on her door in person
1165080	1170700	at 3am in the morning and her nest camera picked this up, right? In person event,
1170700	1175020	claiming that she committed crime, knocks on her home.
1177440	1185880	So in 2022 at Maricopa, we processed 386 threats. Many of those were single threats. The FBI gets
1185880	1190640	frustrated at us when we submit more than one threat at a time. However, there is a limit to
1190640	1194960	how fast they allow us to report threats. So sometimes they're coming in too fast and we had
1194960	1201220	provide them with a package of threats, right? Here's a type of event or interaction and here's
1201220	1208980	the 10 or 20 threats that we saw on this platform. That's up from 2021 where we had 33. In 2020,
1208980	1215400	we saw six. At the Arizona Secretary of State's office, we processed 66, but it wasn't being
1215400	1223160	tracked until November. So beyond the humanitarian consideration, there's a very real cost to losing
1223160	1228920	election officials. Out of the 15 counties in Arizona, we have reporters. Some people have
1228920	1233340	clerks, some people have different things. The reporter is the highest election official that
1233340	1239180	runs a county, right? Elections are run local. Out of 15 counties, seven reporters have retired
1239180	1244320	since 2020, 13 election directors. And I believe that number is out of date. We've had a few more
1244320	1249660	and there's another one who's retiring soon. Think about the loss of experience. We have skilled
1249660	1255740	election workers who understand the process, who have, you know, they understand the community that
1255740	1262220	they live in and it's being cycled out. We've had people standing outside of our election facility,
1262220	1266640	filming people going in and out, taking pictures of license plates. What happens when they start
1266640	1273480	pulling our workers home? Who wants to work at government wages and experience death threats?
1274140	1279300	What's more, in 2022, we saw a surge in Dropbox watchers. What happens when citizens feel it's
1279300	1286300	unsafe to return their ballot? So, low. Let's try to bring it back up.
1287280	1292020	We've seen a direct correlation with comments made on social media and traditional media,
1292020	1298360	anything online, and a kinetic threat, physical threats to election workers. So, previously,
1298900	1304480	we were a bit reactive, right? If one of our staff was accused of breaking the law,
1304480	1308060	they started seeing their social media flooded with threats,
1308060	1313920	phone calls, etc. We would then go through their social media and try to help them lock it down.
1313920	1318240	That's reactive. It's too slow. We need to be proactive. And I'm going to dig into that in
1318240	1324140	just a little bit. What's more is we're seeing threats come directly to our office,
1324140	1329460	but there's also threats that are occurring in public spaces, not private forums, not private
1329460	1334880	communities. We're not snooping in people's homes or anything, but if you're making public
1334880	1342520	statements out on the internet, whether that's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Patriots.win,
1342520	1346500	if you're in the comment sections of news sites that don't moderate them and you're making death
1346500	1351580	threats, that is a public death threat. That is not legal. So, we do threat hunting and gathering.
1351700	1355860	We do it inside of our department. We do it at the Arizona Secretary of State's office. Maricopa
1355860	1360360	County does it. And the other counties do it as well. And we communicate with each other.
1360360	1364840	We also have third-party vendors that are out there doing threat hunting and law enforcement
1364840	1371280	as well. When people make threats, we have to take them seriously, right? The first step in someone
1371280	1376520	being an active shooter is making some sort of claim, saying, I'm going to kill you.
1377460	1382660	How did that feel? I didn't like it. Maybe they backed out. Maybe it emboldens them. Nobody
1382660	1395500	stopped them. So, we can't report to law enforcement acts of free speech. If someone
1395500	1400580	is calling and harassing, they're calling every day. They're saying how much they hate you very
1400580	1406100	explicitly, describing how they think something bad should happen to you. Free speech. But we see
1406240	1412680	a direct correlation and this harassing behavior escalating to threats. We can't report free speech
1412680	1416960	acts to law enforcement, but it still needs to be tracked. And that's what we have implemented.
1416960	1424000	We have a codified process that defines what threats are and are not. So, again, just saying,
1424000	1429420	I hate you, you suck, that's harassment, right? That's not a reportable event to law enforcement.
1429420	1434760	Instead, a threat is a statement or intention to inflict pain, injury, damage, or other hostile
1434760	1440900	action to someone in retribution for something done or not done. It can be direct. I have a gun
1440900	1446380	and I'm going to shoot you. It can be indirect. Somebody should shoot you. A threat can be encoded
1446380	1451860	using slang or pop culture references or word games. And when we receive those, it's important
1451860	1456320	that when we report it to law enforcement, we decode it for them. We want to make it as easy
1456320	1460580	as possible for law enforcement to do their job. If you give them something and they're like,
1460580	1465100	is this a threat? I don't know what this is. It's got a Star Wars reference in it or something.
1465100	1470820	It's important to explain to them, not as if they're stupid, but this is exactly what's being
1470820	1475920	said. This is why it's a threat. If there's any specific law being broken, it's also nice to
1475920	1483580	point them to the law that they can act upon. So next, internal ticketing. It sounds kind of odd,
1483580	1486640	but our solution to tracking these things, especially things that are not immediately
1486640	1491320	reportable, is we create a ticket. Every single time there's harassment or threats,
1491320	1496140	we make a ticket, just like it's an IT problem, and it's tracked in our system.
1497120	1501680	And when it does escalate to the level of a threat, here is a package for law enforcement,
1501680	1505840	here's the series of events, the 30 days of them calling and saying how much they hate us
1505840	1509920	before they slipped up and accidentally said, I'm going to do something about it.
1509920	1518880	So it's not just a one-off. Every time a staff member is specifically threatened,
1518880	1522900	we make sure that they understand, here's the scope of the threat. If someone just mentioned
1522900	1527700	your name online and you're just a staff member who knows why they're targeting you for some
1527700	1532920	accusation of malfeasance, we let them know, that way people know, hey, there's a threat
1532920	1536520	out against you, and we know the scope of it. If they just mentioned your name,
1536520	1541660	they just mentioned your name, all the way up to they've mentioned a violent act against you,
1541660	1546000	we've looped in law enforcement, and maybe we have to negotiate getting you some additional security.
1547480	1550500	And as I mentioned, we also do threat intelligence sharing with our community.
1550500	1555800	So if we see a threat, if it's not us, we're like, oh, it's not us, oh, well,
1555800	1562640	I hope they find it. No, absolutely not. So it could be someone who is in a
1562640	1566920	different county. It could be someone who's a judge. Judges are seeing lots of threats these
1566920	1576160	days. We report all of them every single time. We also have the ACTIC, which is our state's
1576160	1580940	fusion center. It's the Arizona Counterterrorism and Information Center. It's the one-stop shop
1580940	1586360	where local, state, federal law enforcement communicate with each other. So every single
1586360	1591160	time we get one of these threats, we create a tip with them, and it loops in the correct law
1591160	1598990	enforcement to act on this. Intelligence sharing. So we have a community called AZ-ISAC.
1600360	1606460	It's a mechanism for all Arizona government entities to communicate with each other rapidly.
1606460	1611340	We're able to stand up temporary events. For example, when there's the primary or general
1611340	1617180	election, we're able to get all the affected entities into one space and communicate rapidly
1617180	1621940	for detecting any kind of threats, any kind of operational problems that anyone's experiencing.
1622620	1627360	And we also do frequent statewide election security meetings, or CESMs. So this is an
1627360	1632860	opportunity for all of the county's election officials, reporters, to get into one place.
1632860	1637240	We present to them information on these are the threats we're seeing. Here are solutions.
1637400	1643520	CISA, DHS are frequent presenters in this space to let our leadership know what's going on,
1643520	1647280	what do you need to be worried about, what are the resources we have for you guys. We also have
1647280	1652240	one that's technology focused, so we can get into the weeds, right? Elected officials don't always
1652240	1658360	understand the security controls that we have, that we need to implement. So we have a technology
1658360	1664500	version, we get real deep, dirty with it, we talk about findings that we have at DEF CON,
1664500	1667400	things that people need to be concerned about, and we're able to share with each other.
1668020	1672960	And we also do one with communications. Information security, election security,
1672960	1680120	has become a communications issue. We have to make sure that we are doing everything we can
1680120	1686820	to restore voter confidence, and we're seeing constant mis-dis, mal-information, and we have
1686820	1690940	to respond to that. So how do we do that as a group, instead of reinventing the wheel in every
1690940	1699580	single small entity? So I mentioned the social media lockdown training. Again, we used to be
1699580	1704940	reactive, now we're proactive. This is a training that's assigned to all of our election officials,
1704940	1709420	not just the people at the top, everybody, because everybody's being threatened.
1709420	1714960	We focus on three things for all of your social media, and again, it's a hands-on keyboard thing
1714960	1720240	that we do with staff. Privacy settings. Are you sharing with the people that you want to share,
1720240	1725040	or are you sharing with the world? I'm assuming most of you, or many of you, are hackers,
1725040	1728540	and you understand, right? Like, if you go to somebody's Facebook, and it's just, boop, it's
1728540	1733180	just open. That's a bad idea for many reasons. Maybe you should only share with your friends
1733180	1738260	and family, we help them with that. But in the instance where we have elected officials,
1738260	1741720	they need to be able to broadcast to the community. So it's just understanding,
1741720	1745100	this is your public account that you're communicating with the public with,
1745100	1750820	versus this is your personal account, right? Keep those things separate. Security. Do you have a
1750820	1755520	long, unique password, and are you using a password manager? That way you can have a different password
1755520	1760540	for everything. And are you using multi-factor authentication for everything? Yes, everything,
1760540	1768980	please. And then the very last thing, perception. The idea of, how would this look if it was
1768980	1772320	printed in the newspaper, right? I'm sure you might have had conversations like this with your
1772320	1778280	family. Is this a view that I no longer agree with, or want to express publicly? Did you write
1778280	1784440	something 10, 20 years ago, maybe not 20 with social media, that you're like, oh, wow, I do
1784440	1789620	not believe that anymore, that was a stupid thing to say. Go ahead and remove that. Because if you
1789620	1794680	get targeted and doxed, if you said anything that's inappropriate or controversial, that's what
1794680	1799960	they're going to glom onto. And related, is this overly personal and inappropriate for a wide
1799960	1811620	audience? Okay, so as I mentioned, myth, dis, and malinformation, or MDM, it drives threats. So we
1811620	1817820	have to combat that with the truth. Here's the problem. The lies are sexy, right? Some of you
1817820	1826280	may have seen or heard of 2,000 mules. It's set to music, right? Nobody wants to read the election
1826280	1835200	procedures manual, right? That's boring. Maybe hackers do. But we have to find a way to make the
1835200	1840620	truth what's actually happening. Policies and procedures, somehow we have to make that sexy,
1840620	1847440	right? So that's the extremely challenging, maybe not impossible mission of our communications team.
1847820	1854060	How do we reach out to our constituents and make sure that they understand that that thing that was
1854060	1860060	specifically crafted and targeted towards them to elicit an extreme negative response is complete
1860060	1867460	nonsense, right? And here's a super happy, positive thing that is the truth that is accessible. So
1867460	1874220	Maricopa County has JustTheFacts.Vote. They go through and pre-bunk and debunk a bunch of common
1874220	1879560	misconceptions and conspiracy theories and they walk you through the full scale version, right?
1879560	1884780	This is an incredibly useful resource. If you are having a conversation with someone and they're
1884780	1889380	like, well, talk to me about the Sharpie gate problem that you may have heard about where
1889380	1896380	there was bleed through on ballots. This goes into detail on that. CISA.gov has a whole bunch
1896380	1903800	of useful content, you know, at the Secretary of State's office and Maricopa County. Again,
1903800	1907600	apologies for focusing centric on Maricopa, but I just came from there. They do a whole bunch of
1907600	1916160	voter outreach stuff. They go out to colleges, local events, recently a gun show, right? And
1916160	1920460	when I found out like you're going to a gun show, okay, that makes me as a security person a little
1920460	1924600	bit nervous, but we got to get out to the people where they are, right? And you want to make sure
1924600	1929400	that you're getting out to everyone, not just left, right, center of the spectrum, everyone.
1930160	1935920	We put out constant newsletters. Our Twitter, their Twitter, Maricopa Vote, is very prolific.
1935920	1941660	If you've not taken a look at it, it's got this perfect blend of informative and sassy. I highly
1941660	1946760	recommend it. It is not boring. Unfortunately, it does generate a decent amount of death threats
1947640	1954020	in that people post death threats as a direct response to it. At Maricopa Vote,
1954020	1959400	the election directors there, Ray and Scott, have something called election connection where they
1959400	1964600	dig in deep to questions from the public and they explain how the process works.
1965380	1971760	And presentations like this one. So we're getting towards the end here. I'm not going to tell you
1971760	1978500	that elections are unhackable, right? There's no system that is perfect. And if someone tells you
1978500	1982100	something, they're either a fool or they're trying to sell you something, maybe a vendor, right?
1982880	1986760	But I will say that the principles of good security are baked into elections.
1986880	1993020	Prevention, detection, recovery, separation of duties, and the principles of least privilege.
1994020	1999460	Like anything, election security can be improved. I'm trying to push forward election security. I'm
1999460	2005780	trying to reach out to researchers, academics, vendors, bridge the gap between them, right?
2005780	2010840	When there's vulnerabilities in equipment, whenever possible, I firmly believe that we
2010840	2015920	patching these vulnerabilities. But there also needs to be an understanding of physical security
2015920	2021280	and control over these devices, right? Just because a vulnerability exists does not mean it's been
2021280	2028020	exploited. If surely some of you have some experience on the blue team, perhaps you're
2028020	2033760	information security professionals, you can understand probably pretty easily why you might
2033760	2039940	not patch right before a major event. Sometimes patches break things. So if there was a vulnerability
2039940	2046140	that's disclosed right before the general election, that's not a time to patch, right? You need to rely
2046140	2050220	on your defense in depth. You need to rely on your controls. You need to make sure that you maintain
2050220	2055100	physical security of things, have cameras on things, make sure you have a backup process in place.
2058720	2064440	So how can you folks help? The number one thing you can do is please don't send death threats to
2064440	2071320	election officials. Other than that, please vote. And I'm not going to tell you how to vote. I don't
2071320	2075980	want to. It's not my place. I don't understand your regional election and who the candidates
2075980	2082360	are. One piece of advice I would offer to you, if you follow someone and they say something that's
2082360	2087120	wrong and it's been discovered that it's wrong and it's shown that it's clearly wrong, how do
2087120	2097480	they respond? Do they double down and maintain this thing that's untrue? Or do they change course,
2097480	2100780	correct themselves, admit that they were wrong, and move forward?
2102480	2107200	The next thing is please, sincerely, please, if you care about elections,
2107200	2112880	be a part of the process. Be a poll worker, especially if you have concerns about election
2112880	2120280	security in your area. Be a part of it. If you see something that seems wrong, report it.
2120280	2126520	Report it up the chain. Talk to whoever your supervisor is. Talk to your election official.
2126520	2130520	If you feel like you're not being taken seriously, take it to law enforcement.
2131320	2135380	If you think law enforcement's not taking it seriously, you can go to the media.
2135480	2141020	But I would not recommend that you take it to an entity that is specifically trying to collect
2141020	2145860	evidence to undermine elections that doesn't actually ask for evidence.
2148260	2155160	Next, demand intellectual integrity of yourself and others. We all have our beliefs. We tend to
2155160	2160440	pick evidence that backs up those beliefs. When you hear something bad about someone that you
2161100	2164740	like, you don't want to believe it. And when you hear something good about someone that you don't
2164740	2168940	like, you don't want to believe it. We have close friends and family, leaders that we trust,
2168940	2173120	and they share our beliefs. And it can be difficult to challenge those that are around us.
2173220	2176320	But if we don't, that's groupthink, right? That's what took down the challenger because
2176320	2184140	people were afraid to speak up. And I realize what I'm asking, right? You can irreparably damage
2184140	2190300	friendships by calling people out on things. You can estrange your family. But that's what
2190300	2195720	we're up against. If something is wrong, you have to speak up. We can't just continue to be polarized.
2197740	2200600	And then the last thing, Ikri, that's known as the Sagan Standard
2200600	2205440	from astronomer Carl Sagan. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
2206320	2212380	Please be critical, especially the things that you want to be true. If you feel an extreme reaction
2212380	2218340	to something that you read, hear, or see, ask yourself about the citations, the sources,
2218340	2225400	the context. You all know generative language models, AI, that's blowing up right now, right?
2225400	2233280	Synthetic content, deepfakes, for example, it's about to go nuts, right? Maybe I'm a pessimist
2233280	2239500	in this, but next year, there's no reason that we shouldn't see absolutely insane content.
2239500	2246300	If there's someone that you don't like, a video that uses their voice that looks like them can
2246300	2251900	show them doing something, right? Imagine your most hated election official that you would never
2251900	2257240	vote for, you're going to be able to have a video of them kicking a puppy or whatever, right? It's
2257240	2262620	going to happen. You guys are hackers. You understand this. It's up to you to explain this
2262620	2268300	to your friends, your family, the community. Don't let nefarious actors trick you into reacting
2268300	2273940	exactly how they want you to. Nothing makes me angrier than when someone tries to trick my
2273940	2279680	grandmother and she's sharing stuff on social media that's like... that's not true. Like,
2279680	2285140	let's do some research together. Help people learn how to Google. And the last thing that I'll leave
2285140	2289900	you with before I'll take some questions is please, again, be very careful about trusting
2289900	2295060	things just because it's what you want to hear. So thank you very much, and if you have any
2295060	2321510	questions, please. Any questions? Nice, I nailed it. But sincerely, if you don't want to ask a
2321510	2325530	question now, I'm going to be here all day. I'm surrounded by other people that are election
2325530	2329470	experts. We would love to answer your questions. So please, please come up.