The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) pushed back on a recent report about Russian hackers penetrating state-based voter systems on Thursday, reiterating that just one state voter system was breached and that efforts to shore up cybersecurity have been ongoing.
NASS responded to an NBC News report that quoted Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity Chief Jeanette Manfra as saying, “We saw targeting of 21 states and an exceptionally small number of them were actually successfully penetrated.”
NASS released a statement clarifying that “we are still only aware of one state voter registration system that was penetrated and that office made a public statement at the time.” The Illinois State Board of Elections released a statement about the data breach in August 2016, noting that 700 voter records were viewed by unknown actors before it was detected.
NASS also took exception with former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson’s comment in the NBC News report that “2016 was a wake-up call and now it’s incumbent upon states and the Feds to do something about it before our democracy is attacked again.”
NASS responded, “In fact, state and local election officials have been working diligently on this issue since Mr. Johnson departed DHS over a year ago.”
“Under the critical infrastructure designation made by DHS in Jan. 2017, there is now an Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council , which includes federal, state and local government officials,” a NASS release stated. “We are diligently working on improved threat information sharing protocols and resources for state and local election officials. Through the EIS-GCC, a number of states have participated in a pilot program to share election-specific threat indicators. If the pilot is deemed successful, it will be approved for all states who choose to participate.”
NASS also highlighted recent state efforts to ramp up penetration testing and risk and vulnerability assessments.
“Make no mistake, election security is a top priority for secretaries of state across the country,” the NASS release stated. ”We ask that DHS and others help us rebuild voter confidence in our election systems by promoting these efforts and providing clear, accurate assessments.”