Election Security Perspectives From Intelligence and Election Cybersecurity Experts

Abstract

Deterring election interference remains an ongoing challenge for national security institutions and election administration agencies. Interference is defined as “any covert, fraudulent, deceptive, or unlawful actions or attempted actions of a foreign government, or of any person acting as an agent of or on behalf of a foreign government, undertaken with the purpose or effect of undermining confidence in, or altering the result or reported result of, the election, or undermining public confidence in election processes or institutions.” The primary areas of concern are voter registration databases, voting machines, and outdated election infrastructure standards that are vulnerable to malign foreign interference. Javed Ali, associate professor of practice at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and J. Alex Halderman, the Bredt Family Professor of Engineering and a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, agreed to share their expert insights into the state of U.S. election security. Professor Ali expressed his confidence in the intelligence community and in improvements made to cyberinfrastructure and inter-agency coordination to deter cybersecurity threats. Professor Halderman encouraged greater state, local, and federal agency cooperation to implement uniform election infrastructure standards. He also urged election administration agencies to implement both defensive and deterrent measures to counter any election interference attempts. An evolving threat landscape presents a variety of security challenges, but Americans can be confident that their vote was safeguarded this election cycle. Despite known attempts at interference, they were not large or effective enough to alter election results.