CISA chief sees no "specific or credible threats" to election infrastructure

we go now to Jen easterly the director of the cyber security and infrastructure Security Agency also known as cisa that's the homeland security agency tasked with securing America's cyber security infrastructure and coordinating with States on Election security and you're going to be very busy I'm glad you're here with us today great to be here I want to ask you about this bulletin first off it warns domestic violent extremists May view election related infrastructure personnel and voters as attractive targets are you aware of immediate and credible threats no let me be very clear at the top we have no information about specific or credible threats to disrupt or compromise election infrastructure I want that to be very clear we are putting out information like the warnings that you mentioned to make sure that state and local election officials have the information that they need to protect their voting systems and their election infrastructure that said Margaret it is a very complex threat environment you have cyber threats you have Insider threats you have rampant disinformation and yes very worryingly you have threats of harassment intimidation and violence against election officials polling places and voters let's be really clear that has to stop it is unacceptable Behavior it's under Democratic and we all need to work together to ensure that this is a safe and secure election and it is the states that administer the election you are providing support to them what is the election day plan for security and then communication what are we going to hear and see so on Election Day actually we at sis are going to be in our own operations center we're going to have federal government Partners private sector Partners there and then we're going to be in direct communication with all of the state and local election officials whose job it is to run and administer elections we're going to be working to share information and we're going to be working to be able to respond to anything that happens but remember at the end of the day the relationship between local officials and local law enforcement is incredibly important I was really encouraged by the opinion piece that came out yesterday with the sheriff in Massachusetts one in Colorado talking about the fact that ensuring election security is a non-partisan issue and threats to election officials have to stop so that connectivity at the local level the information sharing the planning and exercising that's happening is really important to ensuring security at the at the polling place and at The Ballot Box we talk a lot about uh rhetoric and the risk of triggering violence um and social media is the place where false information often spread so I want to ask you about what's happening now at Twitter it's now privately owned by billionaire Elon Musk this morning he tweeted a conspiracy theory about Nancy Pelosi's husband given how charged our environment is are you concerned about how this platform might change and that it's it's going to make your job more difficult well first of all horrific attack on Mr Pelosi and thoughts and prayers go to their family that is a decision that social media companies that Twitter will make they make their own decisions based on terms of service I am laser focused himself I am laser focused on the next nine days and the time that comes after elections on doing everything we can to ensure security I do want to be very clear on this though Margaret these elections election officials these are not faceless backroom bureaucrats right these are our relatives our friends our neighbors they're in our community they are dedicated public servants that are working day in and day out to ensure the security of Elections and they deserve not just our support but our admiration and respect and they deserve to be safe and we all need to be responsible about ensuring that's a safe and secure environment which is why I'm asking you about the place where these conspiracy theories spread the FBI report when we looked at it in terms of those direct threats to election workers highlighted Arizona Colorado Georgia Michigan Pennsylvania Nevada and Wisconsin as places where voter intimidation and threats to election workers have been seen are these the areas of greatest concern for you concerned across the board we have cyber threats from nation states and cyber criminals you have Insider threats you have physical threats as we talked about and then you have disinformation so disinformation foreign influence that can be used to sow Discord that can undermine confidence and election integrity and that can be used to incite violence so what are we doing we're doing a couple things first of all we're putting out information about tactics and disinformation and how to build resilience against disinformation we have a rumor versus reality site that's basically election literacy but most importantly we we are amplifying the voices of local and state election officials they are the trusted voices that understand how elections work if anybody has a questions about voting or what how it all works they should go to their local local election officials so that's who they should be following on Twitter and social media your local election official is exactly exactly and you know I should point out the National Association of secretaries of State nasa.org trusted info 2022 a great source for information as well as the National Association of election directors nasa.org frequently asked questions that's the best best place to go they know how elections happen if you've seen one state in election you've seen one state it's actually surprisingly Technical and complicated and that's why I welcome people asking questions you know the beauty of democracy is that it's participatory we can all have a role so volunteer be a poll worker ask questions the more transparency the better before I let you go I want to ask you about the foreign threat in 2016 Russia probed voter registration logs we know there are warnings about what China is doing right now how effective has this campaign by Beijing been and are there other state actors or non-state actors you're concerned about yeah we've seen Russia we've seen Iran we've seen China use the playbook for influence operations that's why it's so important that Americans realize that they need to build resilience against that if you see information that's on the internet you're not sure whether it's true be critical about it ask questions look at the source investigate it and don't spread that information any more broadly and give basically give foreign adversaries a chance to manipulate Americans and to sow Discord and to create a lack of confidence in our elections but I want to be very very clear I have confidence in the elections that are going to be run because of the massive amount of work that's been done across the federal government a state and local election officials with election vendors to put multiple multiple layers of resilience and security controls in place I am confident that elections will be safe and secure and the American people should have confidence in the Integrity of Elections when they go to The Ballot Box when they cast their vote all right good luck to you it will be a busy next few days and weeks thank you very much

Channel: Face the Nation

Views: 29,759

Keywords: Face the Nation, CBS News, video, Margaret Brennan, U.S., politics, Jen Easterly, cybersecurity, election, midterm

Id: Y939hGxK-88

Length: 7min 19sec (439 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 30 2022