---
title: "Will we be Able to Trust the Outcome of U.S. Elections Ever Again? | DuoCircle"
description: "It’s 2020, which means it’s time for another Presidential election in the U.S. The big question is, who will win?"
image: "https://www.duocircle.com/images/og-default.png"
canonical: "https://www.duocircle.com/blog/phishing-protection/will-we-be-able-to-trust-the-outcome-of-u-s-elections-ever-again/"
---

Quick Answer

US election infrastructure remains exposed to phishing because most administrators have not deployed real protections. An Area 1 Security analysis of 10,000 state and local election administrators found more than half use only rudimentary or non-standard phishing defenses, fewer than 19% use advanced anti-phishing controls, 5.4% use personal email addresses, and some still run versions of Exim known to be targeted. The realistic attack pattern, flagged by federal authorities ahead of the November vote, is a well-timed ransomware attack delivered by phishing that disrupts voter registration databases or rattles confidence even if the vote count itself survives. The mitigation that fits a budget-constrained election office is cloud-based phishing protection with real-time link scanning, deployable in about 10 minutes per user with no hardware investment.

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![U.S. Elections](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/08/dmarc-report-4478.jpg) 

It’s 2020, which means it’s time for another Presidential election in the U.S. The big question is, who will win? _But an even bigger question is, will we be able to trust the outcome?_ There are evil forces out there who’d love nothing better than to _manipulate the outcome of the election for their own purposes_. And what way are they most likely to do that? Through phishing, of course.

_It’s not like elections haven’t been targeted by phishing attacks in the past_. It’s happened in [2016](https://www.securityweek.com/russia-effort-2016-us-election-was-vast-professional) and [2018](https://www.securityweek.com/will-russian-hackers-affect-years-us-election). So, it would be surprising if it didn’t happen this time around.

Election administrators know all this, but what have they done about it? As things turn out, not much. According to an article on [Security Week](https://www.securityweek.com/us-election-administrators-failed-implement-phishing-protections-study), “Looking to evaluate the **email protections** and controls that election administrators have implemented, Area 1 Security has analyzed 10,000 state and local election administrators’ **susceptibility to phishing**, and it has discovered that more than half of them use rudimentary or non-standard technologies for [phishing protection](/email/phishing-protection).” In other words, less than half have done anything about it.

[![email protection](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/08/email-smtp-service-5577.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/08/email-smtp-service-5577.jpg)

Other interesting results from the study include “less than one-fifth of them (18.61%) use **advanced anti-phishing** controls \[and\] 5.42% of the election administrators use personal email addresses. Others independently manage their own custom email infrastructure, _some using versions of the Exim mail server that are known to have been targeted in cyber-attacks_.”

_How could attackers use phishing to sabotage the election? Ransomware_. From [Security Week](https://www.securityweek.com/ransomware-feared-possible-saboteur-november-election), “Federal authorities say one of the gravest threats to the November election is a well-timed **ransomware attack** that could paralyze voting operations. _The threat isn’t just from foreign governments, but any fortune-seeking criminal_.”

Things are trending in a bad direction. “_Ransomware attacks targeting state and local governments have been on the rise_, with cyber criminals seeking quick money by seizing data and holding it hostage until they get paid. The fear is that such attacks could affect voting systems directly or even indirectly, by infecting broader government networks that include electoral databases. _Even if a ransomware attack fails to disrupt elections, it could nonetheless rattle confidence in the vote._”

Imagine if some portion of voters never get their vote counted. Of what use is the election? This is the challenge the election administrators wrestle with as the election looms near. What will they do about it? What can they do about it? One of the things they can do is to implement inexpensive, **cloud-based phishing protection** software for everybody even remotely involved in the election.

[![phishing protection ](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/08/windows-smtp-service-8833.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/08/windows-smtp-service-8833.jpg)

[Phishing Protection](/email/phishing-protection) technology like that available from _Duocircle requires no purchase of hardware or software and no maintenance_. Requiring no cash outlay to deploy the **protection is important** for a budget-minded election organization. _It also sets up in about 10 minutes_, which is important for these IT-limited organizations. And the price? Just _pennies per user per month_. Seems like a pretty small price to pay to preserve democracy.

Here’s hoping the election organizations do the right thing and _deploy technology like Phishing Protection with real-time link scanning to avoid ransomware and ensure the reliability of the election outcome_. They can even try it **free for 60 day**s.

![Brad Slavin](https://media.mailhop.org/dmarcreport/images/team/brad-slavin.jpg) 

Brad Slavin 

General Manager

General Manager at DuoCircle. Product strategy and commercial lead across the email security portfolio.

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