Update by Secretary Johnson on DHS election cybersecurity services
By Loren Blinde
October 11, 2016
On October 10, Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson issued an update on election cybersecurity services.
To date, 33 state and 11 county or local election agencies have approached the Department of Homeland Security about our cybersecurity services. With 29 days to go before the November 8 election, we encourage other election agencies to do the same.
Our services include cyber hygiene scans on Internet-facing systems, as well as risk and vulnerability assessments. We can conduct cyber hygiene scans remotely, and provide state and local election officials with a report identifying vulnerabilities and recommendations to improve online voter registration systems, election night reporting systems, and other Internet-connected election systems.
Time is a factor. There are only 29 days until election day, and it can take up to two weeks from the time we receive authorization to run the scans and identify vulnerabilities. It can then take at least an additional week for state and local election officials to mitigate any vulnerabilities on systems that we may find.
Source: Department of Homeland Security
