MEDIA ADVISORY: Regional Election Cybersecurity Workshop: Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia
On Thursday, April 22nd, from 1:30 to 3:30 pm EDT, the USC Election Cybersecurity Initiative will host a free online regional workshop for North Carolina and four other states, offering resources to Republican and Democratic party officials in each state, state and local candidates and election officials, campaigns, and others to reinforce election cybersecurity defenses and best practices.
Contact: Adam Clayton Powell III (703) 848-5232 or acpowell@usc.edu; Emily Gersema, (213) 740-6973 or gersema@usc.edu; or Ted Kissell, (714) 316-8808 or tkissell@usc.edu
With a welcome by Gary Pruitt, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Associated Press, USC and regional experts will lead discussions on cybersecurity and cyber safety, disinformation and misinformation, crisis response on Thursday to help improve election cybersecurity in North Carolina. Also, there will be updates with up-to-the-minute reports on new developments and resources available from federal agencies will be presented by cybersecurity experts.
“On Thursday we will present the best of what we heard visiting all 50 states, both in person and virtually, including best practices for everyone in campaigns and elections,” said Adam Clayton Powell III, executive director of the project. “We are a national campaign, and our candidate is democracy.”
WHAT: USC Election Cybersecurity Initiative
WHO: Speakers will include:
- Thomas Hicks, Vice Chair, U.S. Election Assistance Commission
- Gary Pruitt, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Associated Press
- Bob Babbage, former Kentucky Secretary of State
- Brian Fung, technology reporter, CNN
- Ja’Scotta Jefferson, Voter Protection Director, Virginia Democratic Party
- Maurice Turner, Cybersecurity Fellow, Alliance for Securing Democracy, German Marshall Fund of the United States, and USC Election Security Analyst
- Clifford Neuman, Director, USC Center for Computer Systems Security; Senior Project Leader, USC Information Sciences Institute; and Associate Research Professor of Computer Science, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
- Sarah Mojarad, Lecturer, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
- Dave Quast, Crisis Communications and Public Affairs Consultant; Adjunct Faculty, USC Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism
- Geoffrey Cowan, Director, USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy
- Adam Clayton Powell III, Executive Director, USC Election Cybersecurity Initiative, and former USC Vice Provost
WHERE: Zoom Event. You will receive credentials upon registration.
WHEN: Thursday, April 22, 2021 1:30 – 3:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time
REGISTRATION: To attend, register here: https://uscregional.eventbrite.com Zoom Event. You will receive credentials upon registration.
MORE INFORMATION: The USC Election Cybersecurity Initiative, supported by a generous gift from Google, is an independent, nonpartisan effort to strengthen election cybersecurity.
In 2020, workshops were held for each of the 50 states, and featured hundreds of state and local officials as speakers and panelists and dozens of state university partners, reaching a total of 4,000 participants. In 2021, USC will be conducting ten regional online workshops for all 50 states. Our national media partner once again is the Associated Press.
The initiative is led by the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, established by University Professor Geoffrey Cowan, who is the principal investigator for the USC Elections Cybersecurity Initiative. For more background on CCLP, please visit its website.