US Cybersecurity Chief Says Disinformation Surge Hasn't Impacted Election

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: US News and World Report/Reuters

Nov. 4, 2024, at 2:45 p.m.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. cybersecurity agency director Jen Easterly said on Monday that her department has not seen evidence of any activity that could directly impact the outcome of the election, despite a surge in disinformation.

She added that the 2024 election has faced an "unprecedented amount of disinformation" from foreign adversaries. U.S. agencies have warned that Russia and others intend to fan divisive narratives ahead of the election, an accusation Russia has denied.

Last week officials in the state of Georgia described a fake video circulating online of Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia IDs claiming to have voted multiple times as "targeted disinformation". In a statement, senior U.S. intelligence officials linked the video back to Russia.

“There is no First Amendment right to commit crimes,” the DA testified in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. “There is no First Amendment right to commit fraud.”

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-11-04/us-cybersecurity-chief-says-disinformation-surge-hasnt-impacted-election

[BumRushDaShow]

2. That unit is looking directly for breaches in systems

and they will probably be on the lookout for phising scams, etc.

There is usually a lot of "non-public" communications that go on between the federal/state/county/municipal elections and IT officials to keep everyone up to date.

[ancianita]

3. It's CISA's job to know.

https://www.cisa.gov/topics/election-security

In January 2017, the Department of Homeland Security officially designated election infrastructure as a subset of the government facilities sector, making clear that election infrastructure qualifies as critical infrastructure. This designation recognizes that the United States’ election infrastructure is of such vital importance to the American way of life that its incapacitation or destruction would have a devastating effect on the country. Election infrastructure is an assembly of systems and networks that includes, but is not limited to:

-- Voter registration databases and associated IT systems;
-- IT infrastructure and systems used to manage elections (such as the counting, auditing, and displaying of election results, and the post-election reporting to certify and validate results);
-- Voting systems and associated infrastructure;
-- Storage facilities for election and voting system infrastructure; and
-- Polling places (to include early voting locations).

CISA works to secure both the physical security and cybersecurity of the systems and assets that support the Nation’s elections.

CISA’s Role
CISA is committed to working collaboratively with those on the front lines of elections—state and local governments, election officials, federal partners, and private sector partners—to manage risks to the Nation’s election infrastructure. The Agency provides resources on election security for both the public and election officials at all levels and will remain transparent and agile in its vigorous efforts to protect America’s election infrastructure against new and evolving threats.

When Chris Krebs, head of CISA under Trump, said that the 2020 election was the cleanest in US history, Trump immediately fired him.