Jigsaw offers tools to prevent hacking of news, election sites

Jigsaw, a research arm of Google parent company Alphabet, says that free and fair elections depend on access to information.

To ensure such access, Jigsaw says, sites for news, human rights and election monitoring need to be protected from cyberattacks.

Project Shield will help websites guard against denial-of-service attacks, in which hackers flood sites with so much traffic that legitimate visitors can’t get through.

2-Step Verification helps beef up security beyond passwords by requiring a second access code, such as a text sent to a verified cell phone.

While the tools can be useful to a variety of groups and individuals, Jigsaw says it is focusing on elections because cyberattacks often increase against news organizations and election information sites around election time.