AMU Emergency Management Public Safety

Threat of Cyber Attack Looms Over Election Day

Cyber-related attack could affect election

The threat of an Election-Day cyber attack looms as the race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump comes to a head. Tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be helping to guard against Election Day cyber attacks in 48 states.

According to a recent report from [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-security-idUSKBN12Z132″ title=”Reuters”], DHS officials plan to analyze voter registration and election systems for various vulnerabilities.

DHS plans to employ defenses to guard against tampering with votes and the spread of misinformation.

NGA expresses confidence

Meanwhile, the National Governor’s Association (NGA) released a statement affirming its confidence in overall cybersecurity of the electoral system across states. The NGA said that election officials are already aware of potential vulnerabilities and are ready to fend off any attacks.

According to [link url=”https://www.nga.org/cms/home/news-room/news-releases/2016–news-releases/col2-content/governors-confident-in-election.html” title=”the statement”]: “NGA is uniquely positioned to understand state, local and federal perspectives on election security. We remain confident that any technical problems on election night will not undermine the overall integrity of the process.”

DOJ to monitor some states

Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-monitors-idUSKBN1321YW” title=”announced”] that it will be monitoring election processes in 28 states across the nation.

The DOJ will deploy more than 500 personnel to polling sites in those 28 states. The deployment will focus on guaranteeing that all eligible voters are able to participate in the election.

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