Exclusive: Stairwell offers free security services to federal campaigns
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Stairwell — a cybersecurity company that scans customers' files and other data for signs of an intrusion —is now providing free services to federal political campaigns, the company first shared with Axios.
Why it matters: Hackers are doing whatever they can to cause chaos in the U.S. election cycle and steal confidential information from political campaigns this year.
- But most campaigns don't have either the funds or the time to find the best security products to detect hackers in their systems.
Driving the news: Stairwell announced today it's working with Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC) to get its tech in the hands of staffers and volunteers.
- DDC is a nonprofit that works with tech vendors to provide federal campaigns with free or low-cost access to cybersecurity products.
The intrigue: Stairwell CEO Mike Wiacek said that his company has already signed an agreement with DDC and that, so far, each campaign Stairwell has spoken with has signed up for the service.
- DDC and Stairwell did not disclose how many campaigns or which ones signed up, per DDC's policy and to protect campaigns from malicious actors.
Threat level: Federal campaigns are facing an unprecedented number of attacks, Wiacek said.
- "There's almost no price that a hostile foreign intelligence service would not pay to get into these [campaign] systems," Wiacek said.
Between the lines: Many cybersecurity tools scan endpoints for signs of malicious intruders trying to get in.
- Stairwell stores a copy of a company's data in the cloud and routinely scans for signs of tampering in case a hacker can bypass endpoint security tools, Wiacek said.
- That includes when a campaign staffer accidentally downloads a malicious file or when a hacker corrupts a key data file.
What's next: Stairwell will provide campaigns with its free services as long as they're operating.
