We explore how a Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton presidency could impact online security, potential dangers to your identity and access to federal information. At a town hall meeting in February, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton called cybersecurity “one of the most important challenges the next president going to face.” Hackers in Russian, China, Iran and North Korea are technically sophisticated and — in many cases — have nothing to lose, she said. “We have to be operating on both of these levels, making it very clear to Russia, to China, that not only that what their government does through various entities, but also if they outsource the work to hackers, they will pay a price.” Clinton has laid out her position on cybersecurity in detail in her policy documents. She’s draw criticism from the tech community, though, for misguided comments about encryption and questionable practices that may have exposed classified information. For his part, Donald Trump says the U.S. is “obsolete” when it comes to technology. “We’re the ones that sort of were very much involved with the creation, but we’re so obsolete, we just seem to be toyed with by so many different countries, already. And we don’t know who’s doing what,” he told the New York Times. “We don’t know who’s got the power, who’s got that capability, some people say it’s China, some people say it’s Russia. But certainly cyber has to be a, you know, certainly cyber has to be in our thought process, very strongly in our thought process. Inconceivable that, inconceivable the power of cyber,” he said. The Republican nominee does not mention cybersecurity or how he’d improve it in his policy or position documents. In her policy documents, Clinton says she will build on President Obama’s U.S. Cybersecurity National Action Plan “by empowering a federal Chief Information Security Officer and upgrading government-wide cybersecurity.” Clinton calls for upgrades to government-wide cybersecurity and the modernization of federal IT. She says she will support efforts to strengthen both governmental networks and private sector security. “Cybersecurity is essential to our economic and national security, and it will only become increasingly important as more commercial, consumer, and government devices are networked.” Despite recognizing the very real dangers of cybercriminals, independent audits show cybersecurity suffered during Clinton’s tenure at the State Department. Agency watchdogs say the State Department was among the worst federal agencies at protecting its computer networks. Compliance with federal cybersecurity standards was subpar when Clinton took office but deteriorated each year, according to an annual industry report card. Security slipped further under John Kerry and remains below average. Throughout Election season, Clinton has been scrutinized for use of a private email server during her time in office. Though the FBI concluded Clinton’s practices were “grossly negligent,” she will not face criminal charges. In July, Trump said he hoped Russian hackers would “find” Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. He later called the comment a joke; others said he called for digital espionage. Clinton’s private email address was also tied to malware linked to Russia, and her server was hit with malware from China, South Korea and Germany, according to the AP. Emails show State Department staff recognized their technology was behind the curve. “State’s technology is so antiquated that NO ONE uses a State-issued laptop and even high officials routinely end up using their home email accounts to be able to get their work done quickly and effectively,” Clinton aide Ann-Marie Slaughter wrote in an email to Clinton in June 2011. But State Department officials say the rankings mischaracterize the department’s security. “We have a strong cybersecurity program, successfully defeating almost 100 percent of the 4 billion attempted intrusions we experience each year,” spokesman Mark Toner told the AP. In 2014, Russian hackers broke into the State Department’s email system in what officials have called the “worst ever” cyber attack on a federal agency. Investigators believe the breach happened after Clinton left office.
