Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the Georgia Cyber Center at Augusta University announced Wednesday their partnership on protecting Georgia’s election system against cybercrime.

“People are increasingly confident about the ease of use and the security of the new system as they learn more about it,” Raffensperger said. “The integrity of elections must be the first priority, and this system accomplishes that with paper ballots that can be readily audited.  In this challenging environment, Georgia is fortunate to have national-caliber expertise to help stay ahead of the bad actors. This association is another way Georgians can be confident that their vote will be accurate and secure.”

Augusta University’s School of Computer and Cyber Sciences and the Georgia Cyber Center will work with the Secretary of State’s Office to help ensure the security and integrity of Georgia’s electronic voting system and advise the state on the safe use of these systems.

“Part of the mission of the Georgia Cyber Center is to leverage government, academic, and industry resources to help protect the citizens of Georgia and their information from malicious attacks.  Nothing is more worthy of protection than our democracy and the election process. Our joint work will help increase the security and integrity of Georgia’s election system and increase voter’s confidence in the outcome of elections,” said Alex Schwarzmann, dean of the Augusta University School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, headquartered at the Georgia Cyber Center.