Security experts from Google, Facebook, Crowdstrike want to save US elections

A new group at Harvard University staffed by the former campaign managers of the Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney campaigns, along with other top security experts, have banded together to help mitigate various types of online attacks that threaten American democracy.

The initiative, dubbed "Defending Digital Democracy," will be run by former chief of staff for the secretary of defense, Eric Rosenbach.

"Americans across the political spectrum agree that political contests should be decided by the power of ideas, not the skill of foreign hackers," Rosenbach said in a Tuesday statement. "Cyber deterrence starts with strong cyber defense—and this project brings together key partners in politics, national security, and technology to generate innovative ideas to safeguard our key democratic institutions."

The statement goes on to explain that the project will create "practical ‘playbooks’ to improve... cybersecurity" and will "assess emerging technologies, such as blockchain, that may improve the integrity of systems and processes vital to elections and democracy."

The group also boasts an all-star advisory group, which includes a handful of key lawyers, political figures, and top security experts, including Alex Stamos (CSO, Facebook), Heather Adkins (director, information security, Google), and Dmitri Alperovitch (co-founder and CTO, Crowdstrike).

It is still unclear how exactly the initiative will tackle this large problem or on what timeframe.