Russia has been meddling in Western democracies and their internal affairs since at least 2014, but the issue came to the fore only after the 2016 US presidential election. And the problem may be more acute than previously thought: Russian hackers attacked election systems in thirty-nine of the fifty states. Since then, several countries have had their political institutions targeted by major cyberattacks. The most recent case took place in Malta, and Russia is the main suspect. Germany also stepped up its cyber-defence capabilities in light of the attacks on the German parliament and political parties, and the Dutch government decided to ditch electronic voting so as to prevent hacking. But efforts to safeguard elections must go beyond concerns about hacking and the technical process of vote delivery.
OP-ED
Jakub Janda, Veronika Vichova: How to Putin-proof your elections
A man holds an anti-Putin sign at an anti-Trump 'March for Truth' rally on June 3 in Seattle, Washington.
