CISA director: Paper record key to keeping 2020 election secure

What I wanna talk about is where we were in 2016 where we are today in the run up to 2020. And then talking about what we actually have to do to get ready, left to get ready for 2020 and then beyond. So, just about this time four years ago, June, July, August. It was becoming readily apparent, very clear that Russia was intent on disrupting the 2016 Election through a variety of techniques. Cybersecurity. targeting election infrastructure, hacking the attacks on political campaigns, and launching a broader influence in disinformation ops Operation. So in response, the federal government mobilized, but I think if you talk to anybody that was in my seat or comparative roles in the last administration, I don't think anybody would necessarily have been happy with the constructs with the mechanisms that they had ready to get go prior to that point. Cybersecurity internet or intellectual property theft. A bad movie, financial crimes. But this was something much much more, something much much more visceral. We have three distinct advantages today that what existed in 2016. First There's a vibrant election security community. Second, we have a better understanding of risk and enhanced risk mitigation techniques across election infrastructure, again, night and day between what existed in 2016. And finally, we have better visibility across the systems that support the administration of a law. Elections. So based on this risk guidance, we've been able to invest in capabilities and risk management techniques. One of the best risk management techniques right now, paper we have from day one, encourage states to shift to some system that has a paper record associated with every vote that's important in 2016. 80% of votes cast had a paper record associated with the vote, for 2020, we're on track for 92%. The last bit is we have better visibility across the election sector frankly, than likely any other sector in the critical infrastructure space. This point in the run up to the 2020 election. We have our IDS system, the Albert monitors, across all 50 states. In some states, we have total coverage of every county. Florida, for example, 67 counties all have Albert centers deployed. Where we can load them up with signatures, they can alert on activity, we can investigate. And we can ensure the security of the 2020 election. That visibility, again gives us the confidence that 2020 will be the most protected, most secure election in modern history. But there's more to do. For one, we have to continue preparing For a capable, disruptive actor, we also have to recognize the changes in the air literally COVID changing the way that elections happen across this country. Lastly, you come into play here. We have to have an informed patient voter. This summer we're rolling out a pilot program across the the country To introduce endpoint detection and response capabilities in a number of jurisdictions, we got to push it out to the edge, get capabilities on individual hosts. Whether it's forensics incident response, we have to continue raising the level of security across our election community. COVID is changing the way elections happen. There's no question about that. We knew that COVID was changing the complexion of elections. It was gonna change how the voting process would happen in person. Social distancing, masking, PPE, disinfecting thrown away pins We knew that that was going to change the way elections would happen. So we immediately partnered with CDC and HHS, again, through those coordination mechanisms that we developed years ago to pull everybody together develop guidance develop plans. We will continue working over the next several months as the covid pandemic evolves. To introduce guidance. To ensure that you as a voter have information. The last measure of resilience in the 202 election is going to be an informed, patient voter. It's going to take time to count the vote. Whether it's absentee ballots coming in, whether it's longer lines Whatever it takes, it's going to take a little bit more time. So on November 3, it's quite possible that we won't know who won the election. So that's why we need you. We need everyone to be more patient voter, to wait until the vote is certified And we know who the winner is. We're all out there to defend democracy. So join us, join us [UNKNOWN], join us in the state and local election community because what we're doing is defending today but we're securing tomorrow too.