Category Archives: Martin Heinrich

Bipartisan bill calls for more coordination between federal, state officials on election cybersecurity

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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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Election cybersecurity should be priority for new DHS secretary, senators say

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Sens. Amy Klobuchar and James Lankford published a letter on Tuesday asking newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to make election cybersecurity a priority for her tenure, citing concerns about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. The senators, who are both on the committees for Appropriations, Homeland Security and Intelligence, say there must be more coordination between state and federal agencies to protect elections, which are run by the states, from cyberattacks. “Election security is national security, and our election systems have become a target for foreign adversaries,” Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Lankford, R-Okla., wrote. The Department of Homeland Security in January designated election systems as “critical infrastructure.” Klobuchar and Lankford praised that designation but said that more must be done. They called for improved information sharing on the state and federal levels. Security clearances for state election officials, which would allow them to review classified materials about cyberthreats, should be expedited, the senators said. The senators also said the […]

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Senators introduce election cybersecurity bill to improve information sharing

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Two U.S. senators are introducing a bill that aims to increase states’ preparedness for cyber interference in federal elections amid concerns about foreign meddling in the 2016 election, Reuters reported. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., announced the the Securing America’s Voting Equipment (SAVE) Act on Tuesday, which would authorize the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to issue security clearances to state officials in charge of running federal elections. The clearance would allow the DNI to share classified intelligence about election threats with those officials. The legislation would also authorize a grant program to let states upgrade their election technology. While the Department of Homeland Security designated election systems as “critical infrastructure” in January, this bill would reiterate that designation as legislation. The DHS last month notified 21 states that their election systems were scanned by Russian hackers looking for vulnerabilities. However some of those states challenged that notion and said their systems were never scanned […]

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