Gary Cameron/Reuters
Democratic politicians sought help with cybersecurity during the 2016 presidential election only to turn down basic protocols like two-factor authentication, a well-known cybersecurity expert said late Friday. Peter Zatko, a former Google executive and legendary hacker, revealed on Twitter that his help had been enlisted by Democrats who wanted advice on how to better protect their research and data. “I argued for a lot of improvements and changes,” Zatko wrote, adding that he’d placed additional emphasis on basic security protocols. But he got “pushback” on a wide range of measures, he said. “They refused to require two-factor authorization: it would be annoying. They pushed back on G Suite to enable document control/access/auditing: another email is too much,” he wrote. As a result, he said, “A bunch of things happened. They are well-known and politicized in various ways.” Zatko’s comments come a day after special counsel Robert Mueller’s latest indictment against 12 Russian intelligence officers revealed that Russian hackers maintained access to the Democratic National Committee’s network for at least four months after Democrats claimed to have secured the information breach.