Thank you very much. People fromwith dickinson. What we thought we would do with this section is to make it interactive, audience participation. We are very interested. We have many of our panelists that have remained. We would like them to respond and to participate in this session as well. We want to continue our discussion about the disparate provisions and the negative impact of social media. It is appropriate to let colleagues from penn state to initiate the conversation. Gentlemen, you may proceed. Hello. Thirdyear student at Dickinson School of law. Hello, everybody. My name is brian and i am also a thirdyear student. Happy to be here. So if we could, there we have heard a lot of interesting topics. Im glad we have so many excellent experts on hand with us. We are going to start it rolling a little bit. Talk somewhato about the technology hurdles, or if we have thoughts about ways that we can detect or combat short of this maligned social engineering that you see, mostly with misinformation. I thought the Machine Learning algorithms between the origin and evolution might as well turn it on. Aboutreiterate, talking detecting and combating misinformation, i was impressed by the data science, Machine Learning program for identifying the evolution and origin of maps, infographics are a fantastic way for voters especially to get information and quickly digest it, but it is, as we saw, in some ways vulnerable to that kind of manipulation. So that is a wonderful first couldnd i wonder if we compile some sort of resource for individuals to at least know, whether it is from an imager or read it to a different site, what did it mean . Anybody want to answer that inquiry . If we have thoughts or i mean, sorry to interrupt anybodys lunch. We are back to penn state for that answer . I think it is interesting when you ring this up because when i was talking about the in a lot, i mentioned, of those features, when we talk they say someam, of these cannot necessarily be placed in an algorithm. You might be better to that humans might be better to detect it. A lot of the features that we are coming up with, it is not only about how can a machine detected, but how can we use the same features . I think that is where helping people to be able to detect, this might be a false just a simple rivers Google Search that a simple reverse will search, when you are it is not necessarily like we think about that. We are not necessarily thinking i am going to go ahead and reverse the image to see where it originally came from, but that is something we should be able to inform our public so that they know the different features, the abilities that they might have based on the technology, where the information is being derived from. A last quick thought. It is not only about misinformation versus real information, but all those sections in between that are important. The public to be able to differentiate what is an advertisement versus news, versus opinion, all of those lawyers as well. Previous speakers was amy cohen, talked about 8000 to 10,000 local jurisdictions that hold the responsibility to make sure that they are fair and free elections in their venue. And it just seems to me that it is asking quite a bit, the federal government is asking, imposing quite a burden on these locals, many of whom do not have any cyber experience. Most of whom dont have knowledge with regard to the technology deployed even in the machines. And the audiences point of view, what you think the federal government should do we are not going to federalized it it to federalize the election peered what should be done to assist the 8000 to 10,000 jurisdictions to prepare as best they can to manage the risk of hacking into the electoral infrastructure. I would like for someone to take that on for me. I think i can begin this one. We heard a lot about what the government can and cannot do especially director alonso and executive director talked about first amendment, and whom it applies to. The people who are at the front lines of this fight against misinformation, such as private actors such as facebook and youtube, they dare obligated to give you free speech obligate it to give you free speech rights. Youtube employs something called the content id. Which somerror rate of us might consider an infringement of our freedom of speech. Essentially facebook can tell us when to speak, and youtube can tell us when to speak, but they are the ones doing what we are trying to do as the government. They are trying to protect us from misinformation, or i like to believe that they are. So, yeah. Importantre is an social justice aspects, making sure that the realities i remember mr. Dearing was he spoke about that in many localities. There are 10,000 jurisdictions overseeing these elections i think we have an obligation to help them do something. I would like you to tell me what you think they ought to be doing. Inaudible] 16 of hers are. This fromweigh in on multiples perspectives, absolutely, governor ridge, you pointed out that we have so many local Election Officials in this country with such a range of capabilities, resources, Different Levels of support from the state, so i think it is incumbent upon both the state and federal government to provide support in different ways as well as society, universities, nonprofits, to help fill these gaps as well. And we see a lot of different everybody inbut Election Security recognizes this is a challenge. It is hard to even be able to reach all 8000 to 10,000 local Election Officials with a piece of information. We dont have a good process. We have a good process to be able to reach the 50 state reachingofficials, those 8000 to 10,000 local Election Officials it is a huge challenge. There are multiple different associations through the election assistance commissions , even telling them something. One piece of information is a challenge. Working through the agency has been huge for the states. It has been huge for the localities using it. They highly value these services them a vulnerability scans. P to be able to right now they dont have the bandwidth to be able to do this in every single 8000 to 10,000 jurisdictions, figuring out the most efficient way to provide that kind of help. The states are providing a lot of help to their locals, and looking at certain programs that have been effective in how we can expand upon that is huge. I dont remember who mentioned the Cyber Navigator Program in illinois, but that is a model that a lot of states are looking to replicate, where the state hires on cybersecurity expertise at the state level to go out and direct cybersecurity support in the counties. They are traveling to all of the counties. Iowa and minnesota both recently launched Cyber Navigator Programs. Right now they only have one cyber navigator, so there are challenges there. But i think those are programs we will see expanding. A lot of states are using the National Guard to provide support to the National Guard going out into localities to provide assessments. So i think we need to look at what is working and how we can expand upon those sorts of things. Another issue you briefly mentioned is the challenge with procurement for local Election Officials is huge. What our trusted systems and those sorts of things. The center for internet security, i mentioned nonprofits they put out a procurement guide for Election Officials, and that is a great resource for Election Officials to use. To start thinking about asking securitybased, riskbased when choosing systems , and again, the challenge is getting that information out to local Election Officials, not just local Election Officials, but local i. T. , procurement officers. It is a very complex system come as you point out. Gov. Ridge i appreciate that. Our friend from kentucky i hope you could make an observation. With your impressive testimony, i thought you could enlighten us. In the back of my mind, you have t, putting out a platform for businesses. It is even a primer on Digital Security so i got dhs, the fbi, expertsme really keen from the cybersecurity, Digital Security world. Why cant we build out a template for every local jurisdiction to say, at the minimum, at the minimum, we have got to check these boxes. And we can go from there. Jared . [commentary inaudible] just Election Security in a box. It is not going to fit every jurisdiction, but yet here are the five simple things that you might be able to if you do these things, your Security Posture will increase exponentially. But i think there needs to be a public and private partnership. It cannot just be the government. If it was just a federal thing, there are jurors there is Jurisdictional Authority at the state and county level, and there are dark counties there are counties that will say that is fine, you can give me this but i dont want it. When there is a third party, a nonprofit, the state sometimes and acting as a passthrough from the federal side, then all of a sudden those partnerships become meaningful. I think there are a couple things specifically to do going back to cyber navigator. That can be huge opportunity that we are providing a basic team and every single state that can go from county to county to make sure they are simply patching their systems on a regular basis, making sure that they are holding to standard protocols when it comes to backdrop. And second the things we are trying to reiterate on a constant basis. I also think there is room for a system that might be Something Like teach for america, which would be using that model of taking professionals that might not find themselves in a community of need because they have graduated from prestigious universities and gone on to wherever they want. If we use that same type of model with i. T. Professionals, inserting them into the counties on a temporary basis but providing that Technology Gap in between. I think it has got to be a partnership between all those sectors. The idea ofi like public and private resources capability. I think we agree do you have questions . It is your turn. Would like to ask a question from the audience. I didnt know i am david levine. My previous job was director of elections for a county in idaho, where boise was. Of elections and debited director for the city of richmond. For those 8000 to 10,000 jurisdictions, our word recently came out that did provide six steps that we think are unilateral steps, that are modest but meaningful that folks can do up to 2020, and i am not going to shill for the entire thing, but it touches on a couple of things. Number one, it is making sure that information is getting out. I think the point that lindsay made, we have talked about the unfortunately only a small fraction of those dotgovtions have a website. It is important to have that. To be able to walk through and make sure officials know and to have the funds to be able to do that is important. One of the other things that is also important as what kinds of simulations you are doing to make sure you get into sort of highlevel or high intensity elections with higher turnout, being aware of what to do. There are an increasing number of states and jurisdictions that are engaging in tabletop exercises that can do more things like mock elections, pilots, and other sorts of things. One of the other pieces that is worth noting and i dont know how the other Election Officials are debt getting folks in and getting their take on this would be helpful, to speak to jareds point about what theyre doing as well as what more they can do. Gov. Ridge one more comment. Right up front. Mike nelson again. I really have a question for the last three speakers comerford david and jared and lindsay. Hacking into election systems is , convincingtty hard the people of the systems are not working. So the information work is probably having a bigger effect, particularly when the story is we have reports in this county, absentee ballots have been shredded, which is what jared told us about. Is there a federal law for helping journalists sort out the rumors from the fact . When they get a report that, oh, my god, election machines out of southern florida are out of commission, they dont even know who to talk to. There is not a place in washington to call. Maybe the secretary of state will not be able to answer the phone. Is there a role to counter this information about the election, particularly on election day or the days right after . I would love to hear peoples thoughts on that. There is also an inherent tension between trying to verify sources and even the most trusted news sources do this, and needing to be the first person to report on a thing. Because the impact that im sure data scientists would know better than i do, of the first headline that comes out regarding something, whatever its veracity turns out to be afterwards, it has its point in our discourse. If anybody can speak to some of those issues, we would love to hear it. Thoughts or feelings . There we go. Thank you again. In terms of the initial question, i would encourage journalists to look to whoever the chief election official is. If the election is about time, place, manner of voting, or what is going on in the administration of the election, i would encourage them to go to whoever that election official is. There are people in the federal government who can answer certain questions about security,and election the cybersecurity infrastructure, security agencies, but they are not going to take a question that is state specific. They will point a journalist to that election official. What i would encourage journalists to do in the broader role for Election Officials in this area, it is challenging, something that they are figuring out as we work through this. I think all Election Officials would consider it their responsibility to try to counter misinformation and disinformation about manner of voting. If they see something correct online about how you vote, where you vote, incorrect online about how you vote, where you vote, they will correct that and get that information out there. When you get into political discourse, highlighted with the legal considerations, that is a lot more challenging. There are Election Officials who are taking a larger role in trying to educate the public, literacy digital issues, educating them about the attempts and efforts to interfere through disinformation with more state actors, but there is a bigger challenge than those questions of wrong information about the election. [inaudible] the information about the election itself . Right, at the state level. Yout of the systems could always call on Election Officials to report it. But automated systems, they are telling their people to report. About where you go to vote, how you vote, how you registered to vote certainly you should report those things to your state and local Election Officials so they can address them. But is there a federal role to inform them . Absolutely. Election officials are strongly encouraging the federal government to get them that information about misinformation and disinformation as quickly as possible. I just wanted to followup on what you mentioned. With this question, when we talk about automatic detection, that is why we want the breaking news, that is very hard to for a normal person to be able to detect it quick. An algorithm can be a little bit better at that. But you mention something at the end, 20 47 journalism. 24 seven journalism. Psychologically, we correct that headline with the new information, we see that people have a hard time believing data correction. That is because of the virality of the nature. The likelihood of me coming back to an article and believing the new corrected information is harder. So we encourage a lot of this idea of picking up on these very fartherso that we move than it already has. So in terms of the process as we look for a technological solution and we talked about the legislative assistance that would aid our state Election Officials but if we are looking at identifying that, it is an algorithm something that i guess how do we get to usems to be required algorithms that automatically identify and rate content in terms of variability or the categories which you had up on your slides. Question butgood also difficult for me to answer in that first i want to highlight whenever i showed those content, we identify news reporting is Something Different than the information. We think that is very important because the intent there is very different. I think we have to be very disciplined if we incorporate algorithm detection on keeping them both separate. Notuse journalists are intentionally giving and false information. But on the detection side, it is difficult for us to detect. A newselieve that organization will be more likely to have information that is accurate and factual. So that is the challenge for us technically, to be able to do that to differentiate that reporting whenever it does happen. I have a thought about a solution here. I have a thought about a solution here, and that is research for active or nonactive, passing the word through the National Science foundation, you find a total of six results that includes disinformation in the research. Out of the tens of thousands of research that has been made over multiple decades. It will require technical and social solutions to make a dent in these problems, if not one or the other. That is my suggestion, to start working on this problem for real. Cannot only happen in think tanks or companies or isolated units like ours, scraping by with bits and pieces to make it work. It will require a more Robust Research structure. Did you have something you want to say . I am wondering if there is another role for private industry here at how many of you have