The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Aug. 10 released a new cyber toolkit to help state and local election officials improve the cybersecurity and resilience of their infrastructure ahead of the midterm elections in November.
The “Protecting U.S. Elections: A CISA Cybersecurity Toolkit” – developed in collaboration with the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) – includes links to freely available resources to combat threats like phishing, ransomware, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and election-specific concerns.
It also breaks down which tools can be used to protect which parts of election infrastructure, including voter information, websites, email, and networks.
In addition, the agency is continuing to work with election officials across the country and territories to regularly share timely and actionable information and intelligence, and provide cybersecurity services, technical assistance, and guidance.
“Each day, state and local election officials confront threats to their infrastructure from foreign interference, nefarious actors, insider threats, and others. This is one more resource to help them in their ongoing efforts to ensure American elections remain secure and resilient,” CISA Director Jen Easterly said in a press release.
CISA has long been involved in securing election systems – which is classified by the government as one of 16 critical infrastructure sectors. In April, Easterly told Congress that election security for the midterms was a top priority for the agency – including helping election officials navigate anticipated Russian misinformation campaigns.
The new toolkit is the latest of CISA’s resources to support the election community. CISA has released several other resources and guidance on everything from cybersecurity to physical security for polling sites and election officials to combat mis, dis, and mal-information.
