Auburn University hosting global forum on securing elections

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Auburn University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, or CCHS, will host a forum Thursday, Sept. 26, in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the Center for Internet Security and the Embassy of Estonia, on securing elections around the globe.

The forum, titled “Securing Elections—Global Lessons Learned,” will feature international experts on policy and operations from the public and private sectors, and it will address risks, vulnerabilities, best practices and what needs to be done to secure elections worldwide. The event is being held from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. EST in the George Washington University City View Room, located on the seventh floor, at 1957 E. Street N.W. in Washington, D.C. It is hosted by the CCHS, which operates under Auburn’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security and drives the policy component of the institute’s work.

Watch the event live here.

Jonatan Vseviov, the Estonian ambassador to the U.S., and Jeanette Manfra, assistant director for the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, will deliver opening remarks. A high-level dialogue will follow, featuring Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former Estonian president and member of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, and Michael Chertoff, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and co-chair of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. The dialogue will be moderated by Frank Cilluffo, director of Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security and the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security.

A panel discussion and a brief question-and-answer session will close out the event, featuring Kathy Boockvar, acting secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; John Gilligan, president and CEO of the Center for Internet Security Inc.; Liisa Past, chief national cyber risk officer for the Estonian government; Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist for the Center for Democracy and Technology; Robert Krimmer, professor of e-Governance at Taltech Tallinn University of Technology and former senior advisor on new voting technologies for the OSCE/ODIHR; and Adm. Pete Neffenger, board chairman at Smartmatic. The discussion will be moderated by Brian de Vallance, senior fellow at Auburn’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security.

Auburn University is a nationally ranked land grant institution recognized for its commitment to world-class scholarship, interdisciplinary research with an elite, top-tier Carnegie R1 classification, life-changing outreach with Carnegie’s Community Engagement designation and an undergraduate education experience second to none. Auburn is home to more than 30,000 students, and its faculty and research partners collaborate to develop and deliver meaningful scholarship, science and technology-based advancements that meet pressing regional, national and global needs. Auburn’s commitment to active student engagement, professional success and public/private partnership drives a growing reputation for outreach and extension that delivers broad economic, health and societal impact.