11-21, 16:30–17:20 (Canada/Eastern), Hackfest - Track 1
Language: English
In this session, we’ll discuss how Russia has influenced worldwide elections using cyberwarfare and how countries have fought back. We’ll understand the natural asymmetry between how countries are able to respond, and how they have changed their approach since 2016.
There are many important elections this year. As you read this, Russia is already disrupting them.
When we talk about election security, most people think of hacking voting machines. But what about other cyber methods and means of disrupting an election? What can nation state threat actors do today, tomorrow, the day of the election, and after to sow chaos and erode our faith in democracy?
In this session, we’ll discuss how Russia has influenced worldwide elections using cyberwarfare and how we have fought back. We’ll understand the natural asymmetry between how Russia and other countries are able to respond, and how we have changed our approach since 2016.
By the end, we will be brainstorming all of the ways to disrupt an election that countries aren’t prepared for.
Get ready to put your nation state threat actor hat on and disrupt some elections - and maybe even earn some ириски-тянучки.
Allie Mellen has spent the past decade in engineering, development, and technical consulting roles at multiple venture-backed startups, as well as research roles at MIT and Boston University. Her passion is combining technology and entrepreneurship, having run her own successful iOS development company out of college and been an investment partner at a venture fund investing in student-run startups. She has worked with multiple nonprofits to teach engineering to students and minorities, including the Global App Initiative and WISP, and has mentored business students at Hult Business School. She received her B.S. degree in Computer Engineering, and has been recognized worldwide for her security research at conferences like Black Hat USA, DEFCON, HOPE, and others. She is now a security strategist in the Office of the CSO at Cybereason, where she is a frequent speaker at security conferences globally teaching about security and pushing the boundaries of the industry.