Amid widespread concerns of outside interference influencing the results this year’s presidential election, the head of the country’s cybersecurity agency says election infrastructure is more secure than ever.
State and local election officials across the country have made big improvements to strengthen both physical and cyber security at polling and voting locations to preserve election integrity, said Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in an interview with Weekend Edition.
After Russia’s attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election in 2016, CISA was created to work with state and local officials to make sure voting machines aren’t vulnerable to hacks.
“I can say with confidence based on all the work that we’ve done together since 2016, that election infrastructure has never been more secure,” Easterly said. “There are cyber threats, there are physical threats to election officials, but we’re at a point now with our election infrastructure secure and the election community prepared to meet the moment on the 5th of November.”
Her confidence in election integrity comes as intelligence officials warn that foreign adversaries — mainly Russia, Iran and China — are stepping up efforts to undermine voter trust in the democratic process, sway voters and inflame partisan divisions.
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