Posted on 08/30/2016 4:31:16 PM PDT by Hojczyk
"We should carefully consider whether our election system, our election process, is critical infrastructure like the financial sector, like the power grid," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said.
"There's a vital national interest in our election process, so I do think we need to consider whether it should be considered by my department and others critical infrastructure," he said at media conference earlier this month hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
DHS has a vital security role in 16 areas of critical infrastructure and they provide a model for what the department and Johnson could have in mind for the election.
DHS describes it this way on their website: "There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof."
A White House policy directive adds, "The federal government also has a responsibility to strengthen the security and resilience of its own critical infrastructure, for the continuity of national essential functions, and to organize itself to partner effectively with and add value to the security and resilience efforts of critical infrastructure owners and operators."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Infosec commentary -
http://securitydebrief.com/2016/08/22/elections-should-not-be-critical-infrastructure/
Security Debrief | August 22, 2016
Elections Shouldn’t Be Deemed Critical Infrastructure
By Mike Martin
The recent cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has led to confusion on how to protect against potential future hacks. In the wake of these attacks, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the Department was looking at designating elections as critical infrastructure. This move would put elections on par with the electricity grid and the banking system. It’s a subject the Obama administration is exploring.
Johnson explained that bumping up elections to that level would raise several implications. This is because under Presidential Decision Directive 21 (the directive that assigned the titles of critical infrastructure), assigning elections as critical infrastructure would mean designating one lead agency to serve as a federal liaison with election officials and offer them a range of assistance. That agency would also stay in touch with DHS (assuming DHS doesn’t take the “sector-specific agency” label for itself), which would offer broad strategic guidance and vulnerability assessments.
This move has been widely supported on Capitol Hill, even though elections are already covered in a way, so the change might not be necessary. According to a DHS official, “Election infrastructure is a complex system of assets managed at the state and local level. While not officially designated as a separate critical infrastructure sector under PPD-21, it is an important aspect of state and local infrastructure and is critical to the functioning of our democracy, and therefore it is covered.”
In addition, an old school hacker who was part of the L0pht hacking collective says such a change might do more harm than good because “classifying voting computers as critical infrastructure is going to cause a lot of headaches at the local level.” According to Cris Thomas, who is now a strategist at Tenable Network Security, “National elections have always been historically treated as a local event, and having a federal designation as critical infrastructure will fundamentally change how we have handled our elections for the last 240 years.”
Thomas also says that we need to focus on the security concerns of the current system, which stem from a lack of testing. Manufacturers do not test systems well enough before sending them to municipalities, which leads to the use of off-the-shelf hardware with minimal security coding. In addition, local government certification agencies are often short on the capacity to test for vulnerabilities and so accept a manufacturer’s claims on the security of their products. As such, says Thomas, “the result is a system that our entire democracy depends on, which is run with minimal, easily bypassed security.”
To sum this up, not only can one argue that these elections are already supposed to be considered critical infrastructure, but the categorization of elections as critical infrastructure may do more harm than good. Therefore, questions remain as to what to do with election security.
The importance of elections is unquestionable. Elections are one of the most crucial practices in America. They determine the future of the country. If one is able to manipulate polls and change voter data to elect a certain official over another, they could potentially manipulate the direction in which our country heads. That being said, this is not something that our government should rush into.
Fundamentally changing our election process less than 80 days before our Presidential election could be disastrous to the fluidity and efficiency of the election, and because of this, we should aim to fix the flaws of our current system first. If the United States government uses better software and does better testing of the system’s vulnerabilities, as Cris Thomas recommended, our election system would be much less susceptible to these reoccurring hacks. Because of this, our first option should be to revamp the broken system, not to blow it up.
I’m not seeing a date in the article.
Jeh Johnson’s allegiance is to Allah, first.
Let's call it a damn good idea and go from there.
The criminal class don’t give a rat’s a** what you think.
The Globalist are going to use DHS TO HIDE THE ELECTRONIC STEAL.
No one will be able to INSPECT THE MACHINES in the name of HOMELAND SECURITY to protect our elections from “Hackers”.
What a joke!
Guarantee all electronic voting will now go to Hillary. Even though she really loss.
The Globalist are making their move because they know in a free and open election there is NO WAY Hillary can win.
STATES??? YOU are in charge of elections. Are you going to object????
Centralized Control of Elections? No way.
Guidelines that improve security, prevent hacking and manipulation, Yes.
Voter ID laws that protect integrity, Yes.
Take it to court right away to stop it
Maybe they should worry about having their own security. This shit has got to stop. It is way past time for civil disobedience. People are fed up.
Obama is making his move ,he can’t let the world see what he’s been up to
If that was to happen they will plant the seeds for a possible revolt.
Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago, Barky laughed when asked about voter fraud and the government??? You really don’t believe that, I think is what he said...
And now look at this, plus the internet on Oct 1st...where is that bolt of lightening I found, hmmm where did I put it!!!
Federalizing elections
Federalizing schools
Blah, blah blah.. Scary SH*T that must NOT happen here.
Don’t forget the ammo
Homeland Security was supposed to fight terrorism. Then, somehow, they ended up in charge of hurricane relief and everything else. It was a bad idea to begin with and now it’s worse.
Homeland Security was Newt’s brainchild. He needs to stand up NOW and say that DHA involvement in the election process is out of line and unacceptable!
Civolution?
I’m reminded of Philly 2012.
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