Official: U.S. elections still at the risk of cyberattacks
WASHINGTON — U.S. elections are still vulnerable to digital interference from Russia and other countries, the secretary of Homeland Security warned Wednesday, a reminder that state and federal officials have struggled to fix potential gaps even as voters begin casting ballots in primary contests.
“The threat of interference remains and we recognize that the 2018 midterms and future elections are clearly potential targets for Russian hacking attempts,” Kirstjen Nielsen testified to the Senate intelligence committee.
President Donald Trump has said little about the challenge, but Nielsen’s concerns echo recent warnings by leaders of the nation’s intelligence agencies. Her department plays a central role in efforts to safeguard the country’s critical infrastructure, including election systems.
Addressing the threat will require unraveling a thicket of overlapping issues, including who will pay to purchase more secure voting machines and how much the federal government should intervene in elections managed by individual states.
The public hearing was part of the Senate panel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which U.S. officials say included attempts to hack election systems in 21 states. One state’s voter database was breached, but there’s no evidence any votes were affected.
“In 2016, states faced a threat they never expected to confront — a hostile nation seeking to invade networks essential to the functioning of our democracy,” said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the committee chairman. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said that “elections are clearly potential targets for Russian hacking attempts.”
The panel had issued several recommendations in advance of the hearing, highlighting the need for stiffer defenses against foreign interference and better communication between local and state officials.
Sen. Angus King, IMaine, described the Russian operation, which the Kremlin has denied, as an apparent test to see how much damage could be done to American democracy.
“It was a sophisticated, thorough, comprehensive, malign and malicious attack on our electoral system,” he said.
Since then, local and state leaders tasked with running polling places and counting ballots have seen their roles expand and evolve.
Some election officials have gained security clearances so Washington can share intelligence on potential threats or participated in “hackathons” to explore digital vulnerabilities in their systems.
The nation’s election infrastructure is decentralized, with states maintaining separate voter databases and using different machines.
That reduces the possibility that hackers can cause widespread problems during a campaign.
But the diffuse system has made it hard to implement sweeping digital upgrades to safeguard the ballots, and determine who is responsible for handling problems.
“The states need more help,” said Eric Rosenbach, co-director of Harvard’s Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. “They are not equipped to face the pointy end of the spear.”
So far, Congress hasn’t approved any funds to help states upgrade cybersecurity or replace old voting machines.
Five states still use machines that don’t print a paper record of each vote, leaving no way to check if a digital tally has been sabotaged.
“If there’s no way to audit the election, that is absolutely a national security concern,” said Nielsen, the head of Homeland Security.
Sen. Mark Warner, DVa., the committee’s top Democrat, said the federal government should consider identifying which states aren’t taking the appropriate steps to protect election systems.
“I believe the public does have a right to know if their state or their community is ignoring the problem,” Warner said.