AWS expands program offering low-to-no cost security services for federal political campaigns and committees

Cybersecurity plays a pivotal role in democratic campaigns and elections. To support their effective security and management, election campaigns and committees need access to the latest industry-leading security services and resources, regardless of their budget. That’s why Amazon Web Services (AWS) is continuing its collaboration with Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC) to offer more than 20 cybersecurity-related AWS services for low-to-no cost to all active and registered national party committees and federal candidate campaigns.

Beginning in 2020, AWS collaborated with DDC to provide essential security services and resources to eligible election campaigns, regardless of party affiliation. In 2022, AWS expanded the offering to include 20-plus services. Since then, AWS has continued to improve its offerings for this collaboration, ensuring election campaigns on both sides of the aisle have access to leading security services for the 2024 cycle.

New this year, AWS Wickr provided an update to the service offering. To mitigate risk and protect sensitive information, DDC recommends that every member of a campaign team — including volunteers, organizers, and senior staff — use encrypted messaging. Wickr provides a secure, end-to-end encrypted messaging and collaboration service that is easy-to-use and works across all devices. Now, eligible campaigns and party organizations will be able to add up to 50 users and 100 guest users to a private Wickr network for 12 months.

“Wickr allows our Senate campaigns to conduct private and encrypted communications, which is critical to them increasing their security posture,” said Ryan Borkenhagen, director of information security and technology for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).

With this update for 2024, eligible customers can now use AWS Audit Manager, AWS Certificate Manager, AWS CloudTrail, Amazon CloudWatch Logs, Amazon Cognito, AWS Config, AWS Control Tower, Amazon Detective, AWS Firewall Manager, Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS), Amazon Macie, AWS Network Firewall, AWS Resource Access Manager, AWS Secrets Manager, AWS Security Hub, AWS IAM Identity Center (successor to AWS Single Sign-On), AWS Shield Advanced, AWS WAF, and AWS Wickr.

“Having a platform for secure and private communications is a core cybersecurity recommendation for every campaign,” said Michael Kaiser, president and CEO of DDC. “Wickr fills that need and we greatly appreciate their partnership.”

If your campaign or committee is interested in utilizing this program, click here to enroll. If you have any questions regarding the AWS/DDC offering, reach out to your account team for more information, or send an inquiry to the AWS Public Sector Team.