Every website put to the internet has to deal with a number of hacks and attacks. At least once in a while for less popular sites, and multiple times a day or even simultaneously for more popular ones.
Cloudflare is known to provide security for websites from brute force attacks which could potentially allow hackers to gain access, deface their web pages, or other malicious deeds.
And here, the company has launched an initiative called the 'Athenian Project' which is tailored specifically for election websites.
The project that was first introduced in December 2017, offers Cloudflare’s enterprise-level security and reliability services to ensure election websites to stay online during peak times, as well as then it's under attack from DDoS (distributed denial of service).
In a July 2018 update, Cloudflare stated that the company is working with state and local election officials in order to give it "appreciation for the dedication of those who serve as election officials."
"We learned details about how state election systems were targeted for cyberattack," said Cloudflare mentioning the U.S.2016 election. "The U.S. government’s indictment of twelve Russian military intelligence officers describes the scanning of state election-related websites for vulnerabilities and theft of personal information related to approximately 500,000 voters."
The company noted that it has been in talks with election officials to materialize this project.
"The Athenian Project is Cloudflare’s attempt to do our part to secure our democracy," said Cloudflare, stating that local election officials are just like ordinary voters, and they are the foundation of democracy.
Athenian Project is initially free and open to all U.S. state, county, or municipal government sites that handle voters' data (including registration or verification information), related to the administration of elections, or the reporting of election results.
The initiative from Cloudflare is indeed welcome, considering that election attacks has happened in some countries, notably in the U.S. and France. But for it to work as intended, election security on the web should also be supported by the governments.
Election websites are similar to any other websites on the web. But in this case, election websites hold a lot of information about voters, and a breach can be disastrous. Especially because they can shift public opinion, influence turnout, and also undermine confidence in democracy.
Protections are needed for this kind of sites to ensure democratic institutions are protected from attack in the future.
"To work as designed, citizens must trust the electoral system, its strength, integrity, and the people who protect it," Cloudflare wrote in its blog update.