E-Deceptive Campaign Practices: Elections 2.0

From CFPWiki

(Difference between revisions)

Jump to: navigation, search

Pincus (Talk | contribs)

Next diff â

Revision as of 17:02, 23 April 2008

1 e-Deceptive Campaign Practices: Elections 2.0

[edit]

e-Deceptive Campaign Practices: Elections 2.0

[edit]

Tutorial Summary

This tutorial explores technologyâs use in the 2008 Election season. The rise of political participation is attracting the attention of those who would use these technologies in positive and negative ways. Deception of voters can include: reliability of voting systems, voter registration status, polling location information, and positions of candidates for public office. Political fundraising efforts are also vulnerable to pharming and phishing efforts to dupe supporters into sending contributions to thieves.

[edit]

Detailed description

Elections are communication centric endeavors. The application of digital communication technology coupled with the benefit of the Internet, cell phones, and other personal digital communication devices creates a 24-hour stream of data that can be tailored to the interests of individual voters.

The rise of political participation by millions of individuals who can be engaged in the election process is also attracting the attention of those who would use these technologies to misdirect or misinform voters regarding such matters as: polling location information, status of voter registrations, and positions of candidates for public office. Further, technology's use in public elections can facilitate pharming and phishing efforts to dupe supporters into sending contributions to thieves and more.

The tutorial will explore a range of topics on how technology can be used in public elections to the benefit or detriment of voters. The range of topics to be discussed include a review of the benefits of technology to better inform and engage voters and how election officials, the media, voters, and opposing sides in public elections might better arm themselves for a positive democratic experience.

II. Ways in which new technology may bring deceptive practices on-line a. Use of data mining to profile and target voters and email them misinformation/ deceptive spam email b. Compressing the timeline for launching disinformation and misinformation attacks from days to hours or minutes. c. Setting up websites that sound official but that are fake and provide misinformation, such as sites for the Secretary of State or local election official d. Denial of Service Attacks against legitimate sites. Also could include lapse of domain registration and hosting agreements e. Re-routing accurate website addresses to false websites Corrupting RSS Feeds, (Pharming and Phishing attacks that misdirect voters from deceptive e-mail posing as legitimate election official communications. f. Using âtypo domainsâ to create false websites with misinformation g. Text messaging misinformation, and cell phone messages (GPS features) h. Using Voice Over IP (VoIP) calls or botnet based calls to spread misinformation

III. Groups that may be targeted a. Young people b. Voters with obvious political leanings based on their online or offline activity c. Not traditionally disenfranchised groups

IV. Why deceptive practices online may be more difficult to trace and the perpetrators more difficult to apprehend a. History of the Internet b. How it Works: Physical Space v. Cyberspace c. Communication and the Internet d. Security Challenges

V. Potential technological means to combat these acts a. To target people for these attacks voter registration records are important b. Web pages, RSS Feeds, and maybe a U-Tube Video on the threat c. Public Awareness

VI. The state of the law covering these types of acts a. Voting laws b. Criminal laws, e.g. cyber crime, c. Civil liability, e.g. for providers d. SPAM e. Computer Crimes trespass, spyware, malicious activity

[edit]