Google said Tuesday it’s expanding its work to provide security tools to federal and state electoral campaigns.
In partnership with cybersecurity nonprofit Defending Digital Campaigns, Google said it is extending the strongest form of two-factor authentication to federal campaigns and including state-level campaigns as part of its election security efforts.
“To help spread awareness and educate all persons involved in the campaign ecosystem, we’re collaborating with DDC to bring non-partisan virtual security training to all 50 states by the end of 2021,” wrote Mark Risher, Google‘s director of product management, identity, and user security, on the company’s blog.
“These trainings are designed to inform and educate state campaign officials, staff and others in the political sector, to understand the basics of protecting their organizations, keeping their information safe, and using built-in and widely available security tools.”
Ahead of the 2020 election, Google said it discovered attempts by an Iran-backed group looking to attack former President Trump’s campaign and a Chinese group targeting President Biden’s campaign.
Mr. Risher wrote on Tuesday that Google provided the two-factor authentication protections to more than 140 U.S. federal campaigns before the 2020 election and is now working on cybersecurity training initiatives for elected officials and their staffs.