Former Facebook executive warns about U.S. elections

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - A former Facebook executive is warning about U.S. elections moving forward.

"Actually throwing an election one way or another is going to be very difficult for a foreign adversary," said Alex Stamos. "Throwing any election into chaos is totally doable right now."

Stamos was the Chief Security Officer at Facebook until he left the position in August for a job with Stanford University.

He is one of dozens of presenters taking part in Disrupt SF, a 3-day tech startup conference in San Francisco put on by TechCrunch.

It's the eighth year for the event but the first at Moscone West.

"We have tripled our square footage (and) doubled in size in terms of attendees. Last year we were at 5,000, this year we're expecting 10,000," said TechCrunch editor Jordan Crook. 

The number of startups taking part has also doubled from 600 last year to 1200 this year.

Entrepreneurs from Bahrain to Brazil, are trying to launch everything from new ways to track traffic or a child's temperature.

They're hoping to get the attention of investors including Sultan Al-Maadeed from Qatar.

Al-maadeed says he brought a 4-person film crew with him to document the event and spent between $20,000-$30,000 for the event and calls it "peanuts" for the potential pay off.

"We are much big believer in technology and to be in technology you need to be where there is history. San Francisco and the Bay Area have great history to learn from," said Al-maadeed.