Funding cuts implemented by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the Elections Infrastructure ISAC managed by the Center for Internet Security have prompted concern among current and former government officials, who believe the information sharing organizations' importance in maintaining IT and election systems' cybersecurity defenses, reports StateScoop.
While the Department of Homeland Security justified the reduced spending by emphasizing MS-ISAC's redundancies, such services have been an essential aid for state and local governments seeking to bolster cybersecurity, according to Connecticut Chief Information Officer Mark Raymond, who noted the lack of new CISA resources meant to support local governments.
Meanwhile, other officials have regarded the loss of federal support to EI-ISAC to be significantly detrimental to U.S. election security.
"Election security is genuinely a race without a finish line and our adversaries are not sitting around eating bon-bons. Our adversaries — both foreign adversaries like Russia, China and Iran, and also domestic terrorists — are continually inventing and executing new and different ways to try to infiltrate our systems," said former Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Kathy Boockvar.
