Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson has hosted what she calls “candidate schools” every election year to inform candidates and their staff about the election process, but concerns over election security in the 2016 election prompted a slight change to this year's curriculum.
Lawson addressed a range of topics during her stop Thursday afternoon at Evansville’s Central Library. She discussed campaign finance rules, mandatory paperwork, and what candidates need to disclose on promotional material.
But she added one new item to the list this year: cybersecurity.
"Cybersecurity wasn’t part of the candidate schools until this year," she said. "Obviously there’s a new emphasis on that."
She said there’s evidence that people have tried to hack campaign sites or create fake ones, and she wants to let candidates know what they can do to protect themselves.
“The biggest part is make sure you watch all of the social media platforms...and then strong passwords, two-factor authentication as well,” she said.
Lawson will hold a total of eight candidate schools and a webinar, which are open to the public.