Comparing Canadian and British Responses to Election Cyber Threats

Cyber threats targeting democratic elections have escalated globally, manifesting as informational attacks (misinformation, disinformation) and technical attacks (hacking, data breaches). While governments recognize the need for comprehensive responses encompassing legislative, policy, and administrative measures, existing research focuses narrowly on national-level analysis or single response types, limiting identification of best practices.
This proposal offers a comparative study of Canadian and British responses to election cyber threats, asking: (1) How robust are their response mechanisms? (2) What are their comparative strengths and weaknesses? Both Commonwealth democracies have experienced election-targeted cyber threats, including Canada’s 2011 robocall scandal and 2021 foreign interference, and the UK’s 2016 Brexit misinformation campaigns and 2021-2022 Electoral Commission breach affecting 40 million voters. The research will employ a performance evaluation framework using criteria from international bodies including the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the Commonwealth Secretariat. The data sources for this proposal include legislation, policy documents, administrative reports, and semi-structured interviews with election officials. Cyber threat responses will be benchmarked against identified “gold standards” in the form of a policy evaluation matrix to assess their robustness. This project will provide evidence-based insights for developing robust, coordinated approaches to protect democratic institutions from evolving cyber threats.

Faculty Supervisor:

Aaron Erlich

Student:

Partner:

University of East Anglia

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Public Service, Policy, and Governance; Cyber Security; Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

University:

McGill University

Program: