美国国家公共电台 NPR Cybertraining Election Officials For This Year's Voting

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

And elsewhere on the show, we're going to talk to a veteran of the CIA who argues the memo's release damages the intelligence community. The director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, warned this week the Russians will likely try to interfere¹ in this year's elections like they did in 2016. U.S. officials have been taking steps to guard against an attack.

But as NPR's Pam Fessler reports, security gaps remain. She has an exclusive look at one session aimed at closing those gaps.

PAM FESSLER, BYLINE²: If any group knows how easily voting can be disrupted, it's election supervisors³ in the state of Florida, which is why several dozen of them gathered in Orlando recently to figure out how best to deal with the latest threat. It's no longer butterfly ballots⁴ and hanging chads, like those that upended the 2000 presidential race, or even a lone⁵ troublemaker⁶. Wesley Wilcox, who runs elections in Marion County, says the danger's grown much larger.

WESLEY WILCOX: You know, it's no longer the teenager in his basement eating Cheetos that's trying to get into my system. There are now nation-states that are in a coordinated⁷ effort, trying to do something.

FESSLER: In fact, Florida was among at least 21 states that intelligence agencies say had their election systems probed by Russian hackers⁸ in 2016. There's no evidence that any votes were changed, but everyone here is hyper-aware that they're now on the front lines of a very serious international conflict.

MATT MASTERSON: The reality is all of us are going to be impacted at some point in time by a cyber incident - all of us.

FESSLER: Matt Masterson is chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a federal agency that's working with states and localities to beef up security. Just to make sure everyone here is sufficiently⁹ alarmed, he displays a news article about hackers targeting nuclear facilities.

MASTERSON: I share this because you're now in good company. As part of the nation's critical infrastructure¹⁰, you're now in a group with nuclear facilities.

FESSLER: Which means more security help from the federal government. But it also means their jobs are far more complex. Elections have become increasingly computerized since 2000, with electronic voting machines, vote tabulators, online registration¹¹ systems. And that new technology means new risks. Ryan Macias of the Election Assistance Commission has a long list.

RYAN MACIAS: So we have denial of service, which is a disruption attack - your website going down.

FESSLER: He says even if hackers don't change any actual votes, they can shake the public's confidence. There are also concerns about vendors¹³ and contractors¹⁴. How do they transmit information like electronic ballots to election offices? Are their systems secure? What about temp workers? Have they been screened?

MACIAS: You have ransomware. What happens if somebody, you know, takes your data - takes your election night reporting data - and holds it ransom¹⁵ on election night? What are you going to do? How are you going to recover from that? What are your backup processes?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: So we just got - WannaCry just hit us, right? Let's say that's the incident.

FESSLER: And that's what these election officials and IT workers try to figure out as they break into smaller groups and are asked to deal with some hypothetical hacks¹⁶.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Well, WannaCry erases¹⁷ everything, so it came up with a no operating system found.

FESSLER: They have to decide if any systems need to be shut down, who has to be called first and if law enforcement should be told.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: We are required to report it to Department of State, right? And then I believe that they would probably take it from there.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: So they're also a stakeholder, then, as well.

FESSLER: Another challenge these officials face is what to do if an election worker mistakenly opens a malicious¹⁸ email.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #5: All right. So it appears one of our employees has been successfully phished.

FESSLER: It's something everyone here is familiar with. According to a leaked intelligence report, Russian hackers posing as a Florida vendor¹² tried to get election workers to open email attachments¹⁹ containing malicious software. So far, there's no evidence anyone did. It's clear that a lot of people here already have protections in place. But some counties are extremely small with no IT staffs of their own. Dana Southerland runs elections in Taylor County, which has only 13,000 voters. She says she picked up some useful tips.

DANA SOUTHERLAND: It's not always opening something and trying to respond to it but making sure that it's not a phishing email or something like that. I had no idea what that was until we started having some of these workshops. But I think just general office practices like changing passwords - you know, just general basic things.

FESSLER: She says perhaps the most important message is that no one, no matter how small, is immune from attack, and they have to be ready.

Pam Fessler, NPR News.

1 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 supervisors   

n.监督者，管理者( supervisor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I think the best technical people make the best supervisors. 我认为最好的技术人员可以成为最好的管理人员。 来自辞典例句
• Even the foremen or first-level supervisors have a staffing responsibility. 甚至领班或第一线的监督人员也有任用的责任。 来自辞典例句

4 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

6 troublemaker   

n.惹是生非者，闹事者，捣乱者

参考例句：

• I would hate you to think me a troublemaker.我不愿你认为我是个搬弄是非的人。
• Li Yang has always been a troublemaker.李阳总是制造麻烦。

7 coordinated   

adj.协调的

参考例句：

• The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

8 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

9 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

10 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

11 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

12 vendor   

n.卖主；小贩

参考例句：

• She looked at the vendor who cheated her the other day with distaste.她厌恶地望着那个前几天曾经欺骗过她的小贩。
• He must inform the vendor immediately.他必须立即通知卖方。

13 vendors   

n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方

参考例句：

• The vendors were gazundered at the last minute. 卖主在最后一刻被要求降低房价。
• At the same time, interface standards also benefIt'software vendors. 同时，界面标准也有利于软件开发商。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

14 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 ransom   

n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救

参考例句：

• We'd better arrange the ransom right away.我们最好马上把索取赎金的事安排好。
• The kidnappers exacted a ransom of 10000 from the family.绑架者向这家人家勒索10000英镑的赎金。

16 hacks   

黑客

参考例句：

• But there are hacks who take advantage of people like Teddy. 但有些无赖会占类似泰迪的人的便宜。 来自电影对白
• I want those two hacks back here, right now. 我要那两个雇工回到这儿，现在就回。 来自互联网

17 erases   

v.擦掉( erase的第三人称单数 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• This command erases all data on the specified partition. 这指令在指定的分区上抹去所有的数据。 来自互联网
• A literary image erases the more indolent images of perception. 文学意象抹除那些感官的懒惰意象。 来自互联网

18 malicious   

adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的

参考例句：

• You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
• Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。

19 attachments   

n.（用电子邮件发送的）附件( attachment的名词复数 )；附着；连接；附属物

参考例句：

• The vacuum cleaner has four different attachments. 吸尘器有四个不同的附件。
• It's an electric drill with a range of different attachments. 这是一个带有各种配件的电钻。