October not so surprising

Anyone who would dare saunter up to me to complain about Christmas decorations going in the stores too early this year has never worked at a news desk in an election year.

That’s right, every four years Santa delivers coal to a reporter’s inbox for 12-14 months straight. I cannot explain to anyone reading this the joy I feel knowing that I won’t be up all-night waiting for confirmation on results in local races, or God forbid, sitting at a campaign headquarters, or any of the miserable places you typically find yourself on election day. I will be blissfully asleep in my own bed this time, with no sense of urgency.

Unfortunately, none of us can escape the pre-election onslaught of news being launched at us right now, and you probably saw an article or three warning about cybersecurity around the U.S. elections. You can thank October for being national cybersecurity month for that, but it’s also a warning worth taking to heart. Of course, you should be concerned about false AI-generated news articles and state sponsored cyber attacks directed at election efforts, but I’m talking about them on an individual level.

There’s nothing hackers like more than an opportunity for an elevated amount of threat vectors and elections provide them with the kind of chaos they need to steal personal information. Answering strange election related texts, emails, phone calls impersonating party or election officials, the same old bag of tricks hackers always use with a different coat of paint.

So, take it from me gentle readers: ride out the storm, get your voting done by or on election day, and practice good cyber hygiene. If not, it might be you I write an article about in the next three months.

By you I mean the next major security entity to get hit by a ransomware breach. Put it on the calendar, people.