Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Sean Plankey Dodges Election Security Questions in Senate Confirmation HearingSean Plankey, a former Energy Department and National Security Council cybersecurity official, faced tough questions from lawmakers about President Donald Trump's false claims of voting machine vulnerabilities and election fraud in the 2020 election during his Thursday confirmation hearing.

Sean Plankey Dodges Election Security Questions in Senate Confirmation HearingSean Plankey, a former Energy Department and National Security Council cybersecurity official, faced tough questions from lawmakers about President Donald Trump's false claims of voting machine vulnerabilities and election fraud in the 2020 election during his Thursday confirmation hearing.

State and Local Election Offices Face Growing Cyber Threat Amid Federal Budget CutsTop-ranking current and former security officials warned Thursday that President Donald Trump's budget cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other election security efforts have left U.S. election infrastructure vulnerable to escalating cyber threats.

Also: Potential Government Policy Changes; AI-Driven Zero-Day DiscoveriesIn the latest weekly update, ISMG editors discussed how the recent election results may reshape U.S. cybersecurity policy and healthcare privacy under HIPAA and the groundbreaking role of artificial intelligence in Google’s recent discovery of a critical zero-day vulnerability.

As the US presidential election draws near, polling company Gallup acts to block XSS vulnerability

Researchers flagged a pair of Gallup polling site XSS vulnerabilities that could have allowed malicious actors to execute arbitrary code, access sensitive data, or take over a victim account.

Also: Dangers of Malicious Code Embedded in ML Models; Is Ransomware in Decline?AI's influence on social engineering and election security has become a focal point at Black Hat. ISMG editors discuss how advanced technologies are making it easier to manipulate people and compromise security systems and offer key insights on machine learning vulnerabilities.

Let's face it: Having “2022 election” in the headline above is probably the only reason anyone might read this story today. Still, while most of us here in the United States are anxiously awaiting the results of how well we've patched our Democracy, it seems fitting that Microsoft Corp. today released gobs of security patches for its ubiquitous Windows operating systems. November's patch batch includes fixes for a whopping six zero-day security vulnerabilities that miscreants and malware are already exploiting in the wild.