To help political campaigns tighten security, Google is partnering with the nonprofit Defending Digital Campaigns to give qualifying political groups free access to Titan Security Keys, The Verge reports. The partnership is a reflection of the growing need for organizations—especially those with a voice in advocacy—to take more cybersecurity measures.
“Campaign cybersecurity has taken on new urgency after 2016, when the Democratic National Committee was hacked after Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager fell for an email phishing attempt,” Kim Lyons writes in The Verge.
The physical security keys provide another level of two-factor authentication to protect Google accounts. The partnership also makes it so campaigns no longer have to set up the security measures themselves, according to Lyons.
Associations may want to take notes. Where some security measures like SMS-based authentication have shown weaknesses, hardware keys such as Google’s Titan Keys are considered reliable devices for two-factor authentication.
The Titan Security Keys are a part of Google’s Advanced Protection Program, which Google says can help protect candidates’ and campaigns’ emails, documents and contacts against hacking.
“In addition to the physical keys, the program scans documents for malware, provides third-party data access restrictions, and is updated frequently to defend against new threats,” Lyons says.
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