The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) component remain on high alert during Election Day, and see no evidence of any malicious attacks on voting infrastructure that would change any vote totals, officials from both agencies said today.
“We face a multitude of foreign interference threats against our election infrastructure” from nation-state adversaries including China, Russia, and Iran, said DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf in an early morning press conference today. “But our election infrastructure is resilient and we have no indication” that any foreign actor has succeeded in impacting “actual votes” in the 2020 election, Wolf said.
“We remain on high alert that the integrity of election infrastructure is maintained,” Wolf said, while reiterating that Americans should use “multiple trusted sources of information” for election information in order to avoid being duped by misinformation campaigns.
Speaking at the same event, CISA Director Chris Krebs said, “I have confidence that the vote is secure, the count is secure, and the result will be secure.”
But, Krebs said, “we are not out of the woods yet … Today in some sense is half-time” of CISA’s efforts to help state and local authorities secure the election process. A CISA official indicated on background that the agency’s election protection efforts will continue through January.
“Regardless of the outcome, there is a common bond stronger than politics,” Krebs said, adding, “we are all Americans.”
“Treat your brothers and sisters out there with respect in the coming days,” he urged.
