Cybersecurity Chief Dispels Fears of Election Interference by Foreign Adversaries

With Election Day fast approaching, many people are concerned that foreign adversaries could interfere in the election to try to influence the outcome.

However, one cybersecurity expert tried to dispel those fears this week.

Jen Easterly, who serves as the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s director, assured Americans that they can be confident about the outcome of next month’s elections.

Local and state election officials have made a lot of progress with ballot counting, securing voting and other election infrastructure, making it a system that’s more robust than ever, she said.

Because of this, there’s no way that Iran, Russia, China or any other foreign adversary would be able to alter the election results.

During an interview with The Associated Press this week, Easterly said:

“Malicious actors, even if they tried, could not have an impact at scale such that there would be a material effect on the outcome of the election.”

Many intelligence officials have sounded the warning about increasing efforts by some foreign adversaries to try to influence U.S. voters, undermine overall faith in the American election system and deepen the partisan divides that already exist.

In her interview with the AP, Easterly spoke about a wide range of concerns related to the election — from misinformation to the role her agency has in interacting with social media companies, to ongoing threats that are being made against election workers.

She said that CISA is in constant touch with election officials in the Southeast, a part of the country recently ravaged by Hurricane Helene. She praised the workers there for “displaying enormous and admirable resilience” as they attempt to ensure voters that they’ll be able to cast their ballot still among the devastation.

At the same time, Easterly recognized that the confidence Americans have in the election system “has been shaken,” though she emphasized election officials are very much prepared to take on emergency situations and are very motivated to protect each and everyone’s vote.

Cybersecurity defenses of election systems have received a huge boost in recent years, she said. Voting equipment is also tested every time before each election so that officials can ensure it’s in proper working condition.

As she explained:

“Things will go wrong. There could be another storm. There could be a ransomware attack, a distributed denial of service attack. These disruptions will create effects, but they will not impact the ability and the votes being cast or those votes being counted.”

In recent months, U.S. officials have warned that some foreign adversaries are trying to increase their efforts to influence voters. 

The Biden administration just last month seized more than two dozen fake websites that were run by the Kremlin. 

Two employees of Russian state media were also charged with a scheme that covertly was funding conservative influencers in the U.S. 

And three operatives from Iran were just charged last week with hacking the campaign for GOP nominee Donald Trump.