Campaign Managers for Clinton, Romney Provide Help for Hacks

(Bloomberg) -- Robby Mook and Matt Rhoades are from different sides of the political aisle. Mook, a Democrat, was campaign manager for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Rhoades, a Republican, ran Mitt Romney’s presidential run in 2012.

But the two men share a common experience: both of the campaigns they ran were targeted by foreign adversaries. Now, Mook and Rhoades are doing something about it.

They created a nonprofit, which opens for business Thursday, with the goal of providing free or low-cost cybersecurity services to congressional and presidential candidates. Called Defending Digital Campaigns, it plans to serve as a clearinghouse that connects campaigns with cybersecurity companies. Their endeavor was made possible by a May opinion from the Federal Election Commission concluding the DDC’s discounted or free cybersecurity services wouldn’t run afoul of campaign finance laws.

“This is a non-partisan organization, and we want to be able to have credibility to go in and help Democratic campaigns, Republican campaigns, conservative campaigns and even liberal campaigns,” said Rhoades, who is co-chief executive officer of Republican lobbying firm CGCN Group.

Defending Digital Campaigns is a spin off of work Mook and Rhoades did at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, where they researched ways to protect campaigns. Romney’s 2012 campaign was attacked by Chinese hackers, while Russian agents hacked Democratic Party emails, including Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

Inherently Insecure

“I never thought that Matt Rhoades and I would be raising money for the same organization, but here we are,” said Mook, who is president of the House Majority PAC, which supports Democrats. “What Matt and I are trying to do is cope with the reality, which is campaigns are on their own right now.”

Part of that reality is that political campaigns are inherently insecure, as they involve an army of volunteers and a need to scale up quickly. Cash-strapped campaigns may hesitate to spend money to protect computer systems. Debora Plunkett, chair of the DDC’s board of directors, who has been meeting with campaigns to assess their cybersecurity needs, said the candidates and their teams have woken up to the threat.

“What I’ve found actually is campaign staff who are much more sophisticated than I would have assumed,” said Plunkett, the former director of the Information Assurance Directorate at the U.S. National Security Agency. “They’ve been doing some reading and watching television, so they understand that is real and a legitimate threat.”

The companies involved include: Cybrary, which provides cybersecurity training services; Wickr Inc., an encrypted communications platform; Area 1, an email security company; Lookout Inc., a mobile endpoint security provider; and GRA Quantum, which provides a variety of cybersecurity services.

DDC officials said they will publish all information about its funding, including every donation, and attempt to balance donations from Democrats and Republicans. The group’s initial funding comes from Allen Blue, a vice president and co-founder at LinkedIn Corp. and a registered Democrat, and Ron Gula, the co-founder of investment firm Gula Tech Adventures Inc. and registered Republican. Both contributed $250,000 in September.

Political Persuasion

DDC officials stress that they won’t discriminate based on political persuasion, though campaigns must meet certain thresholds. Candidates for the House of Representatives will need $50,000 in receipts in order to qualify, and Senate candidates will need $100,000. Presidential candidates who are polling above 5% nationally will qualify.

So will all candidates who quality for general elections.

DDC won’t name campaigns that use its services, fearing such disclosures could put a target on them or reveal information on how they protect networks. The group’s team includes former senior officials from federal agencies and the tech industry. Michael Kaiser, former executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, is the president and chief executive officer.

DDC officials said they aren’t promising a silver bullet but hope their efforts will dramatically increase campaign security, particularly for candidates who might not otherwise be able to afford cybersecurity services.

“Obviously there would be much more happiness if we could just give them the thing and plug it in and be done,” Plunkett said. “That’s not today’s reality and never will be. So we have to stay vigilant and make sure that we are constantly watching for any unusual activity.”

To contact the reporter on this story: William Turton in New York at wturton1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Martin at amartin146@bloomberg.net

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