WASHINGTON (Halbeeg News_- President Obama’s campaign in 2012 used Yubikeys, which are security keys for protecting logins, as a defense against hackers, according to Yubico CEO and founder Stina Ehrensvärd.
“The woman who tried after him did not, and you can see the results,” Ehrensvärd said in an interview at Black Hat.
That missing link in the security chain could have cost Hillary Clinton the presidency. The thousands of leaked emails released by Russian hackers played a pivotal role during the 2016 election, and the resulting controversy contributed to her defeat by Donald Trump.
The hackers gained access to prominent officials within Clinton’s campaign, as well as the Democratic National Committee, through a process called spear-phishing, in which hackers use carefully crafted emails and websites that trick victims into giving up their passwords.
A security key is a useful tool if that happens, since potential hackers would need both your password and that physical key itself to log into your accounts. Google has boasted that since it adopted security keys, none of its employees have fallen victim to account takeovers.
Google plans to start offering a device it’s built, the Titan Security Key, to the public sometime in the next few months.
“People who have a lot to lose, a lot at stake, those are the ones who are starting to adopt our products,” Ehrensvärd said. “High-profile individuals, people on Twitter who have a lot of followers, or YouTubers with millions of followers.”
The extra security measure likely would have protected Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s email from being hacked.
Jeff Link, the regional IT director for Obama’s campaign in 2008, said that they did not use security keys at the time, because it was too early. Ehrensvärd originally mentioned that both Obama’s campaigns used the security keys, but the company later clarified that it did not offer the tool in 2008.
Obama campaign managers from 2008 and 2012 and the Clinton Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.
Source: cnet.com
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