State election officials resisted federal cybersecurity assistance during 2016 election
State and local election authorities resisted federal cybersecurity assistance during 2016, President Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary told lawmakers Wednesday. As attacks against election targets because increasingly visible in 2016, Jeh Johnson, who was secretary into early 2017, floated the idea of designating election infrastructure as critical infrastructure, making it a top security priority for DHS and give it the benefit of domestic and international cybersecurity protections. “To my disappointment, the reaction to a critical infrastructure designation, at least from those who spoke up, ranged from neutral to negative,” Johnson said. ” Those who expressed negative views stated that running elections in this country was the sovereign and exclusive responsibility of the states, and they did not want federal intrusion, a federal takeover, or federal regulation of that process. This was a profound misunderstanding of what a critical infrastructure designation would mean, which I tried to clarify for them.” A a critical infrastructure designation […]
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