Bipartisan bill calls for more coordination between federal, state officials on election cybersecurity
A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation on Thursday that aims to protect U.S. elections from foreign meddling through cyberattacks, citing reports from the intelligence community that Russia explored such interference in the 2016 election. The bill, called the Secure Elections Act, would facilitate communication among the federal, state and local levels of government on cyberthreats to elections. Specifically, it would require the Department of Homeland Security to expedite security clearances for state election officials to review information on such threats. The legislation also seeks to provide guidelines for how to secure election systems and would provide grants states to implement those guidelines and upgrade their election equipment. The bill would also create a “Hack the Election” program that would allow independent researchers to assess the security of election systems. The provision doesn’t specify whether it would have to be a bug bounty program like the U.S. military’s recent efforts. James Lankford, R-Okla., […]
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