With the U.S. midterm elections just around the corner and security concerns running high, a new survey finds that three-quarters of local election websites are not using the .gov domain to help boost site security and engender a higher degree of user trust.

County-level election workers in at least two battleground states saw a surge in attempted phishing exploits in the runup to the 2022 midterm election primary contests, according to a new report from cybersecurity firm Trellix.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED), held an annual election security exercise last week to test Election Day plans.

A new report from the House Oversight and Reform Committee calls for a whole-of-government plan to support state and local election officials amid an increase in election misinformation and disinformation.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Aug. 10 released a new cyber toolkit to help state and local election officials improve the cybersecurity and resilience of their infrastructure ahead of the midterm elections in November.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has notified election officials of software vulnerabilities found in Dominion Voting Systems equipment deployed in several states, but also that the agency has found no evidence that those vulnerabilities have ever been exploited.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released draft guidance to help local election officials reduce the risk of cyberattacks on election systems, and is seeking public comment on the draft.

The Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council – whose leadership spans Federal, state, and local government election officials – applauded inter-government cooperation on implementing cybersecurity safeguards in the 2020 election cycle, and pledged to use lessons learned going forward to improve election security and resiliency.

FBI Director Chris Wray said on Sept. 16 that his agency hasn’t seen any attempts thus far by foreign actors to attack the U.S. voter registration databases in the run-up to the November elections, or any attempt to tamper with vote counts.

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.