U.S. Midterm Elections Series: Zero Trust and Election Security

U.S. Midterm Elections Series: Zero Trust and Election Security

Product Serial: B-2022-09-06a

TLP:CLEAR

In this brief, ZeroFox Intelligence explores the idea of Zero Trust architecture and how it may be incorporated into the U.S. elections process to help in secure the integrity of election assets.

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Scope Note

ZeroFox Intelligence is derived from a variety of sources, including—but not limited to—curated open-source accesses, vetted social media, proprietary data sources, and direct access to threat actors and groups through covert communication channels. Information relied upon to complete any report cannot always be independently verified. As such, ZeroFox applies rigorous analytic standards and tradecraft in accordance with best practices and includes caveat language and source citations to clearly identify the veracity of our Intelligence reporting and substantiate our assessments and recommendations. All sources used in this particular Intelligence product were identified prior to 5:00 PM (EDT) on August 30, 2022; per cyber hygiene best practices, caution is advised when clicking on any third-party links.

Executive Summary

Elements of network security architecture can be incorporated into the U.S. elections process to help in securing the integrity of election assets. Zero Trust architecture, which eschews implicit trust even of personnel approved for access to resources, is fully applicable to the oversight of voter registration databases. The principle of least privilege, which limits access according to minimum need, is more applicable to the non-networked processes of counting in-person votes and mailed ballots.