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Officials remain vigilant about possible cyber threats after a peaceful election day

Election officials are cautiously declaring victory after receiving reports of major cyber incidents on Election Day.

 

Officials remain vigilant about possible cyber threats after a peaceful election day

Christopher Krebs, director of the Homeland Security's Cyber ​​Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said: "After millions of Americans have voted, we have no evidence that any foreign enemy has voted for Americans. Was able to prevent casting or changing the length of the vote. “Statement Wednesday

 

But in the long shadow of 2016, when the United States suffered widespread Russian intervention, the same officials had to be wary of possible attacks as states counted the remaining ballots on the battlefield.

 

Agencies working to increase electoral security in recent years are still on high alert during the vote counting process, noting that the election is not over even if the ballots have been’ cast.

 

"I think it's amazing that yesterday was quiet, which tells you that the work is coming to an end. But we know that the nature of cybersecurity landscape threats doesn't end there, and you have to Needless to say, oh, they were good. ‘You see the commitment and the effort, and it's going to continue, "Benjamin Howland, chairman of the Trump-nominated Electoral Aid Commission, told The Hill on Wednesday.

 

This includes targeting electoral infrastructure in all 50 states of the Russian government, with Russia paying close attention to the security of the voting process to election officials at all levels of government since 2016 in a swift and complex Russian intervention effort. Is. Hackers gaining access to the voter registration system in Florida and Illinois.

 

Although there was no evidence that any vote has been altered or that voters have been barred from using the ballot, voting has improved relations between the government, state, and local election officials, as well as voting. A new focus has been placed’ on cybersecurity of infrastructure.

 

In the mid-1990s, former DHS Secretary Jay Johnson named the election as a key infrastructure, and Trump created the CISA in legislation in 2018, which now includes state and local election officials on security issues. Is the central agency that coordinates with.

 

"It's like night and day," Edgardo Courts, who served as Virginia commissioner four years ago, told The Hill on Wednesday. "Except for immediate elections, there was almost no level of coherence in 2016."

 

"Yesterday's election went very well, yesterday's leadership and yesterday itself was much better, and I think it's a reflection of the ongoing effort that state and local election officials have put into electoral security, and Harmony, who now serves as an adviser to the Electoral Security Team at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

 

Prior to Election Day, the CISA set up a 24/7 Operations Center to assist social media companies, election machine vendors and other stakeholders in coordinating with state and local officials.

 

Hovland, who was at the Operations Center on Tuesday, cited increased coordination to secure this year's election, as well as increased cybersecurity and the intervention of infrastructure sensors in all 50 states. Made sense

 

"On Election Day, at a time when we were becoming so aware of misinformation and misinformation that one of the biggest dangers is - and being able to know what's going on somewhere. Yes, get to know the truth very quickly, and be able to report snow before anything, "Howland said.

 

On Wednesday, top officials were cautiously optimistic about how things would turn out.

 

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va), a ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there were clear agencies, including the Homeland Security, the FBI and the intelligence community, that had "learned a ton of lessons from 2016."

 

"It involves a lot of coordination and collaboration with private industries and social media companies to help states and territories tighten their systems and focus on detecting Intel integration threats." Warner, who was elected’ for a third term. Tuesday, in an emailed statement.

 

"We are confident of finding something in the coming weeks, but at the moment it seems that these preparations were quite effective in defending our infrastructure," he warned.

 

Over the past four years, Capitol Hill has focused on a major electoral security issue, how to deal with electoral security threats, especially during the COVID-19 epidemic, when election officials face new challenges and financial challenges. Presented with support concerns.

 

Congress has allocated more than $ 800 million in March to increase electoral protection for states to remove barriers related to epidemics, and an additional $400 million in March.

 

But Democrats and election experts have argued that $800 million was only a fraction of the security risks involved, such as providing financial support to permanent cybersecurity professionals in every voting sphere, and weak and outdated ones. Updating Electoral Equipment.

 

"Electoral officials have a great reputation for what they do with their limited resources," said David Lyon, a former Idaho election official who is now a member of the Security Democracy Alliance's electoral integrity.

 

"Relying on election officials for permanent and permanent funding can really help ensure the integrity and security of our elections," he added.

 

Threats of foreign interference are not over, and the threat to the election will almost certainly continue as the length of votes and attempts to vote in future elections are made’.

 

A senior CISA official told reporters late Tuesday night that the agency was in a state of disqualification, defamation of election websites, denial of service attacks on electoral systems and the demand for voting reporters who took the system offline. Looking for risks such as growth.

 

"The level of attack increases for the next two or three months due to unknown information and other attempts at foreign intervention," the official said. "There is no rush of football here. We are fully focused’ on the mission. We are aggressively looking for any activity that could interfere with the election, and that will be our mission for the future."

 

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and other federal officials announced that Russia and Iran had obtained US voter data and were trying to interfere in the election process, just weeks after election’ day. This was pointed’ out.

 

"When you look at what we've seen, I don't expect it to eliminate any of the risks anytime soon, but we've seen what we're doing is working. “And we need to keep doing that and improve it," Howland said.


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