Defending Digital Campaigns Provides $2.9 Million in Cybersecurity Services to Protect Campaigns in 2024

Nonprofit and key partners highlight results of political campaign security efforts and updated state eligibility for donations

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC), a nonprofit, non-partisan and non-aligned C4 organization that provides free or low-cost cybersecurity resources to political campaigns, today announced that since 2019 it has donated over $7.9M in products and services to a range of campaigns, including presidential and down-ballot. The nonprofit, alongside its partner network — which includes Cloudflare, Google, Microsoft and Yubico — is unveiling the results of its extensive national efforts to protect campaigns.

"During this year's election season we saw a significant number of cyber threats and events, including significant activity by nation states to compromise campaigns and distribute AI-driven misinformation. It drove home the need for campaigns to have the right cybersecurity tools in place," said Michael Kaiser, president and CEO of DDC. "Today, we are inspired by the results we have seen from this collective effort. None of this would be possible without our valued partners, who share our mission of securing campaigns and protecting this essential part of our democracy."

In 2024, DDC helped more than 350 campaigns, committees and state parties — bringing the total since its founding to over 750 campaigns and committees, including over 40 state parties. Through its 13 cybersecurity vendor partners, DDC provided over $2.9 million of donated products during the 2024 campaign and provided over $7.8M in donations, including over 20,000 security keys.

DDC's technology partners and donors offer a range of robust security solutions that include strong account authentication, defense against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, protection from website defacements and campaign email impersonation, as well as solutions for addressing AI-generated misinformation like deep fakes.

DDC relies on the generosity and commitment of a broad range of companies committed to making their cybersecurity tools available to eligible entities in every party.  The companies  include:

• Amazon Web Services
• Block Party
• Cloudflare
• Doppel
• Facebook
• Google
• iVerify
• Microsoft
• Stairwell
• Sublime Security
• Valimail
• Yubico
• WICKR

"At Cloudflare, our goal during any election season is to ensure that sites that enable democracy — such as voter registration sites, election information portals, campaign websites, and results reporting platforms — remain secure and accessible. In the week before the 2024 US elections, we blocked more than 6 billion DDoS threats–which is more than we saw in the entirety of September and October. Despite this notable increase in threats, we didn't see any significant disruptions to campaigns or local government websites from cyberattack. I'm incredibly proud of this and the role we were able to play in helping ensure democracy was not disrupted by cyberattacks." — Alissa Starzak, Deputy Chief Legal Officer and Head of Global Policy, Cloudflare

"Our partnership with Defending Digital Campaigns has been pivotal in addressing the challenges of deepfakes and improving cybersecurity defenses of our political customers. Together, in 2024 we trained nearly 500 political operatives on cybersecurity best practices." — Ginny Badanes, General Manager – Democracy Forward, Microsoft

"We appreciated working with Defending Digital Campaigns as we helped in the takedown of election-related threats such as online fraud and scams as it relates to the 2024 US Presidential Election. We saw close to 764 suspicious domains and 1532 suspicious social media accounts related to major candidates in the 2024 Presidential Election, and we reported other indications of election-related misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (MDM) and fraud." — Kevin Tian, Co-Founder & CEO, Doppel

"Through our partnership with Defending Digital Campaigns, we were able to protect and defend nearly 2,000 mobile devices belonging to political leaders, their families, and campaign staff. We're proud to support DDC in their mission to protect the integrity of our elections and ensure the safety of those working to strengthen our democratic institutions." — Danny Rogers, CEO, iVerify

"Yubico was founded with the mission to make the internet more secure for everyone - and to us, a secure internet means a secure democracy. In a time when bad actors are being more sophisticated and targeted in their attacks, we saw firsthand this election season just how crucial it is for campaigns to protect themselves from growing cyber threats. We're proud to support DDC through our Secure it Forward program, and together we have donated YubiKeys to help secure hundreds of campaigns regardless of party affiliation across the country." — Ronnie Manning, Chief Brand Advocate, Yubico

Through DDC, cybersecurity products, services, training, and information are available for eligible federal campaigns, state parties, and down-ballot races in a growing number of states. DDC was granted a Federal Election Commission Advisory Opinion to provide eligible campaigns — regardless of party affiliation — with cybersecurity products and services that do not need to be reported as contributions. DDC is working with the proper state officials and has secured the eligibility to offer in-kind donations free from reporting requirements in Georgia, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia to date.

For more information, please visit defendcampaigns.org.

About Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC):
DDC is a nonprofit C4, nonpartisan and non-aligned organization providing access to free cybersecurity products, services and information. DDC's founding members and board include the former presidential campaign managers for Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney, as well as former senior officials at the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security, and the tech industry. DDC works with the world's leading technology vendors to make their services available directly to campaigns in addition to providing education for campaign professionals. DDC was granted special permission by the Federal Election Commission to operate under this model, providing all campaigns — regardless of party — with the support they need within the limits of campaign finance law. For more information about DDC and its work, visit https://defendcampaigns.org/.  

SOURCE Defending Digital Campaigns