Election cybersecurity: a comprehensive look at the threats and solutions ahead of 2019

Canada’s 43rd federal election will take place in 2019, in what is in many ways a completely changed landscape for democratic elections since the Liberal Party won a majority in October 2015. In fact, an annual report by the Commissioner of Canada Elections published in May this year noted that at the time of the 2015 election,“emerging technologies had posed relatively little concern to the enforcement of Canada’s election laws.”

It will be the first Canadian federal election to take place following major news stories about hacking, foreign interference and social media manipulation of the United States and other western countries’ democratic processes. Various government departments and agencies, as well as private sector players like social media platforms, are taking steps to prepare for a number of threats, from those posed by misuse of social media to spread fake news and misinformation, to hacking attempts targeting internal communications, web- sites and data storage systems of political parties and elections agencies.