Wednesday, April 18, 2018

When It Comes to Protecting Our Elections from Cybersecurity Threats, States Know What They’re Doing

Tom Spencer has an article at the Daily Signal that makes a great point: “When It Comes to Protecting Our Elections, States Know What They’re Doing:”. While some have been screaming the 2016 election was hacked, the reality is that not a single vote was hacked and the states are doing a great job of protecting the security of elections from hacking. The states running elections is a good thing for cybersecurity as Tom explains:
Our federalist structure, which gives states the primary control and responsibility for election administration, is the best defense against the hacking of an election. Our decentralized system consists of thousands of different jurisdictions, which use different procedures, equipment, servers, vendors, and locations for data at every step of the election process, from voter registration to the final certification of results. Federalizing the administration of elections would remove this vital safeguard.
Not only is the diversity of state systems helping preventing hacking, the states are doing a better job than the Federal Government:
States and localities around the country are experts in election administration and have been thinking about and protecting the security of our election system long before it ever entered the national spotlight. And the federal government is no bastion of cybersecurity, as demonstrated by the fact that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was hacked over 200 times.
The sad fact is the real purpose of some promoting the false narrative that states were hacked is not really about cybersecurity but undermining the 2016 election and ironically helping Russia:
In a sense, Russia is winning without “firing a shot,” as the myth of their election hacking has undermined confidence in the 2016 election. Those who wish to sow discord in the U.S., like Russia, have found reliable allies in politicians, pundits, and computer scientists who are eager to create a centralized election administration system that is far easier to hack.
This is far worse than simply casting doubt on our election systems and election results. Rather, it creates the potential for real harm to our election administration systems while ignoring the efforts of hardworking election officials across the country.
Let the states continue to run elections.  They have done a better job at cybersecurity than the Federal Government.

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