Keeping data safe for democracy

Company: Dropbox | Role: Security content specialist

Challenge

Help prevent political parties from being hacked in 2020.

The Comms and Public Policy teams reached out to both major US political parties with an offer: “Let’s work together to keep your Dropbox accounts secure.” There were two motivations:

  • Contribute to the public good of ensuring our elections are fairly run

  • Avoid headlines like “DNC SAYS RUSSIAN HACKERS STOLE FILES FROM DROPBOX”

Solution

Create a Help-style “one-pager” on account security that we can give to people working for campaigns and committees.

Highlights of my approach

  • Proposed two versions to reach distinct audiences: mainstream campaign workers and IT admins who support them

  • Consulted with Security subject matter experts to identify the top ways to protect accounts

  • Developed categories to organize the material for scanning and taking action

  • Drafted and revised content based on input from Comms, Public Policy, and Security; re-used snippets from Help articles where possible; applied Dropbox voice and tone for a support context

  • Teamed up with a designer on layout and visual style

Outcome

No repeat of 2016.

The response from the presidential campaigns and national committees was quiet—just a few perfunctory “thank yous.” We’ll never know for sure if our outreach made a difference. In the security world, no news is good news.

Maybe we would have patted ourselves on the back if a candidate had said, “Hey Russia, if you’re listening, don’t bother trying to break into Dropbox accounts. They’re too secure!” Then again, we would’ve been taken aback by such a statement, no matter how complimentary.