With the 2020 General Election a mere eight weeks away, election officials at both the state and Federal level are preparing for the final sprint to Nov. 3.
The Election Assistance Commission partnered with the nation’s lead cyber agency to aid election officials in prioritizing and managing risks to election infrastructure through an online tool.
The nation’s lead election security agency in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it has not seen any attacks on voter registration databases or voting systems this year.
The Cyber Navigators Act, H.R. 8011, would provide additional election-specific IT support to provide help monitoring systems and digesting data from cybersecurity information sharing and analysis centers, said Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., one of the bills cosponsors.
The Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) – which includes members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and informs how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) works with state and local authorities to protect election systems critical infrastructure – declared on August 20 that the election community is fully prepared to handle the final stretch leading up to the 2020 general elections.
A Department of State program is offering up to $10 million to help identify bad actors, individuals who are working with or for a foreign government with the purpose of interfering with U.S. elections through certain cyber acts.
A top U.S. intelligence community leader said today the IC doubts the ability of U.S. adversaries to manipulate the results of U.S. general election voting in any widespread way, while warning that exploits may be attempted against election infrastructure with a goal of interfering with voting processes, stealing data, and casting doubt on the democratic process.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released its Mail-in Voting in 2020 Infrastructure Risk Assessment to help with risk management of critical election systems.
This week the Federal agency primarily responsible for protecting elections held a training event to test its plans in advance of November’s Election Day. The third “Tabletop the Vote” exercise hosted by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, took place over a three day period from July 28 to 30, featuring 37 states and over 2,000 total participants, the majority of which participated remotely.
In the latest white papers from the National Academy of Public Administration’s (NAPA) election integrity initiative, the organization is recommending a stronger emphasis on building public trust in government to improve election security.
