Microsoft has notified political organizations more than 780 times in the past year that they’ve been targeted or compromised by nation-state attacks. “This data demonstrates the significant extent to which nation-states continue to rely on cyberattacks as a tool to gain intelligence, influence geopolitics or achieve other objectives,” the company said in a blog post. The majority of activity originated from Iran, North Korea and Russia, Microsoft said. Since the launch of the program Microsoft AccountGuard a year ago, the company has uncovered attacks targeting political campaigns, parties, and democracy-focused nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This week at the Aspen Security Forum, Microsoft also demonstrated parts of the free, open-source project ElectionGuard, which offers voting directly on the screen of the Microsoft Surface or using the Xbox Adaptive Controller; a tracking code that confirms votes are counted and not altered; and end-to-end verifiable elections with paper ballots.
