September 29, 2016 | No Comments
Congressional leaders are urging states to do everything they can to insulate their election systems from cyber attacks amid reports that more than a dozen states have already been targeted by hackers.
“We urge the states to take full advantage of the robust public and private sector resources available to them to ensure that their network infrastructure is secure from attack,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wrote Wednesday.
The bipartisan letter follows reports that more than a dozen states’ voter registration rolls have been targeted by hackers, according to CNN, including successful hacks in Illinois and Arizona.
In the bipartisan letter, sent to Todd Valentine, president of the National Association of State Election Directors, congressional leaders also underscored that the Department of Homeland Security is ready to provide cybersecurity help to states that request it.
“Such assistance does not entail federal regulation or binding federal directives of any kind, and we would oppose any effort by the federal government to exercise any degree of control over the states’ administration of elections by designating these systems as critical infrastructure,” they wrote.
DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson told lawmakers on Tuesday that 18 states have requested cybersecurity help from the department so far.