Democrats give cyber short shrift in party platform

Democratic National Committee delegates approved a party platform on Monday that scarcely mentions cybersecurity, reversing a trend from the 2020 version and mirroring the Republican party document.

There were just two explicit mentions of cyber in the 2024 Democratic platform, both vague and in one case neglecting to note that Kamala Harris, rather than Joe Biden, is the party’s nominee — a platform-wide phenomenon.

“We will remove barriers to legal access, combat hate crimes, and counter cyber threats,” the platform vows in one section.

“He [Biden] will continue to address cyber threats by bolstering the capacity of our intelligence communities and leading the development of rules of the road for technologies like artificial intelligence,” the platform vows in another.

The platform does give more attention to privacy, a subject that sometimes overlaps with cybersecurity. In a section on data privacy, it touts Biden administration actions to protect consumers’ data against commercial data brokers, “foreign intelligence actors” and identity thieves.

“We must do more and update and pass the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, protect student data privacy by ensuring what is collected in schools is only used for education, and update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to protect personal electronic information and safeguard location information,” it states.

It also says that Democrats aim to pass bipartisan legislation to safeguard children online and enact tech industry laws allowing users to control and transfer their data. Additionally,  the party seeks to enhance protections against cyberstalking, deepfakes and voice impersonations.

The 2024 Republican platform features two sentences on cyber and no mention of privacy. “Republicans will use all tools of National Power to protect our Nation’s Critical Infrastructure and Industrial Base from malicious cyber actors,” it states. “This will be a National Priority, and we will both raise the Security Standards for our Critical Systems and Networks and defend them against bad actors.”

By comparison, the 2020 Democratic platform features five separate explicit mentions of cyber. The Republicans hit “copy-paste” in 2020 and re-used their 2016 platform rather than composing a new one. The 2016 platform didn’t mention cybersecurity.

Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, said he was “disappointed” by the sparse mentions of cyber in the 92-page 2024 Democratic document, but added, “I don’t overreact to this too much.”

That’s because “platforms aren’t that important,” he said. Cyber-wise, he would’ve liked to see some discussion of the importance of protecting critical infrastructure. But he looks at the Biden administration’s record on the issue as more significant.

“For the last four years, they have put a lot of energy into critical infrastructure and cybersecurity,” he said. “I would say their intent has been high and their execution has been moderate. I’ve got to give them credit, because they’ve shown an intention to work on the issue.”

He said he was glad to see critical infrastructure mentioned in the 2024 Republican platform, “because their intent was probably less focused” despite some achievements in the area.

Cyber also doesn’t get as much attention as some other more politics-oriented issues in party platforms because “no one is politically against cybersecurity,” said Bruce McConnell, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center.

“Cyber is not a political issue, so it often gets short shrift in platforms and the like. Nobody pays much attention until they have to,” McConnell, a former cyber official at the Department of Homeland Security, said via email. “Even then, look how short-lived the coverage of the Crowdstrike-[Microsoft] error was. Partly it’s that the damages are usually invisible — the Crowdstrike-[Microsoft] scenes in airports were impressive, and unusual.”

Whoever wins is likely to focus on cyber regardless of what the platforms mention or don’t, said Norma Krayem, vice president and chair of cybersecurity, privacy and digital innovation at Van Scoyoc Associates, a government affairs firm. Harris as vice president has been active on critical infrastructure and cybersecurity over the past four years, Krayem said.

“Party platforms are also a compromise amongst the party overall,” she said. “Privacy is very prominent because of the growing cyber risks the nation faces. The fact that cyber is not listed explicitly is not indicative of any change in top priorities for the Harris-Walz ticket.”

And the cyber passage in the GOP platform is at least noteworthy for signaling “an active and potentially mandatory set of cyber requirements” if Trump wins, Krayem said.

Derek B. Johnson contributed to this story.