The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the Department of Homeland Security is tasked with securing U.S. elections. And that gargantuan effort is being led by Cait Conley, senior adviser to the CISA director, who spoke to NPF Paul Miller fellows on Sept. 13.
3 Takeaways:
Find the signal in the noise.
“There’s going to be a lot of noise in the information ecosystem. We need help in ensuring that when it comes to facts about the elections process, the American people are going to the signal through the noise, those who are truly the authoritative source on election administration, and that is state and local election officials,” Conley said.
Conley praised election officials who are under increasing pressure.
“They’re not faceless bureaucrats. They’re people, and they’re people we know,” Conley said.
She also explained that CISA has public servants throughout all states and territories working with officials.
Refer to CISA’s resources.
CISA is doing three things to ensure integrity in this election, and Conley described what these are and how journalists can benefit from CISA’s resources:
- Providing guidance about election preparation and threats
- Reference its Rumor vs. Reality page correcting common false narratives
- Emphasizing the expertise of state and local election officials
Conley noted to journalists that these resources and officials are nonpartisan.
“We serve our mission regardless of who is in office,” according to Conley.
Officials are prepared.
Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections was a “wake-up call” for the U.S., Conley said, noting that CISA now works with the FBI, NSA and other U.S. intelligence to protect elections from threats foreign and domestic.
Domestically, Conley said threats, including swatting, have targeted election officials due to “unfounded claims” about the 2020 election.
In terms of foreign adversaries, she noted the July Office of the Director of National Intelligence report specifically citing Russia, China and Iran as threats.
“While elections may be political, election security is not. In fact, election security is national security. … It is arguable that the 2024 threat environment is the most complex yet, with election officials facing a wide array of threats from cyber … ransomware targeting local offices or government offices, to physical,” Conley said. “But here is the good news: Our election infrastructure has truly never been more secure or resilient, and this election security community is more connected than ever.”
Conley also discussed that issues are bound to arise during election season but affirms that election officials are prepared.
“They prepare for it, they train for it, they develop incident response plans that they rehearse,” she said.
She spoke about many hypothetical situations that could happen on Election Day but recognized the normalcy of these instances, and they should not be a cause for alarm.
“Just because there will be disruptions, it does not mean that those disruptions are going to impact the security or integrity of the process,” Conley said.
Access the full transcript here.
