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