Homeland Security Seeks to Protect Election from Cyber Attack
The Obama administration is seeking new protocols to ensure the security of the upcoming presidential election against cyber threats. Jeh Jonson, the secretary of Homeland Security said the U.S. was deciding if they should at the electronic ballot-casting system for November’s election as “critical infrastructure.”
After the hacks that plagued the Democratic committee and convention, Johnson said he was conducting high-level discussions about “election cybersecurity.” This discussion will not be easy as they will have to decide how to handle the 9,000 different jurisdictions in the United States that have a hand in carrying out the balloting, many with a different way of collect, tallying and reporting the votes.
“We should carefully consider whether our election system, our election process is critical infrastructure, like the financial sector, like the power grid,” Mr. Johnson said. “There’s a vital national interest in our electoral process.”
Johnson will consider communicating with state and local election officials across the country to inform about “best practices” to guard against cyber intrusions. He plans to show that long-term investments would probably have to be made to secure the voting process.
Johnson was careful to note that there are no current threats towards the presidential election; rather he was looking into it because of recent events dealing with cyber attacks on political parties.