FBI and CISA offer an appreciation of election security.
N2K logoOct 6, 2022

It's an optimistic, reassuring appreciation, too.

FBI and CISA offer an appreciation of election security.

The US FBI and CISA have issued a public service announcement stating that cyber activity is unlikely to disrupt or prevent voting in the US:

“As of the date of this report, the FBI and CISA have no reporting to suggest cyber activity has ever prevented a registered voter from casting a ballot, compromised the integrity of any ballots cast, or affected the accuracy of voter registration information. Any attempts tracked by FBI and CISA have remained localized and were blocked or successfully mitigated with minimal or no disruption to election processes.

Measures in place to ensure the integrity of the vote.

The Bureau and CISA reassure the public that measures are in place to ensure the integrity of the vote against potential cyberattacks.

“The public should be aware that election officials use a variety of technological, physical, and procedural controls to mitigate the likelihood of malicious cyber activity (e.g., phishing, ransomware, denial of service, or domain spoofing) affecting the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of election infrastructure systems or data that would alter votes or otherwise disrupt or prevent voting. These include failsafe measures, such as provisional ballots and backup pollbooks, and safeguards that protect against voting malfunctions (e.g., logic and accuracy testing, chain of custody procedures, paper ballots, and post-election audits). Given the extensive safeguards in place and distributed nature of election infrastructure, the FBI and CISA continue to assess that attempts to manipulate votes at scale would be difficult to conduct undetected.”

BleepingComputer notes that the most pressing threat to elections are influence operations on social media. That's a threat of a different kind, however, not a threat to counting the vote, or ensuring that ballots cast are properly registered and tallied.