US officials along with some dignitaries from the white house are worried that the voter registration database and polled results data of upcoming 2020 elections will be vulnerable to cyber threats such as a ransomware attack.
According to a report of Reuters, Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has reacted to the issue early this year by taking all necessary precautions to thwart such attacks before and after the elections. But their worry is obvious because despite taking all necessary steps, the 2016 elections were reported to be rigged in favor of the 45Th US President Donald Trump.
Although Trump and his team deny all these allegations as baseless, the FBI and the CIA on a collective note have submitted a report on the issue in Jan’2017 to then Present Barack Obama who did agree that the foreign influence has indeed rigged the elections.
Now, the US election committee has started to educate its employees on this note and have also included a routine of doing tests such as remote penetration testing and vulnerability scans on the related infrastructure.
Here the objective of such intensive planning is to simply be prepared for any type of foreign invasion on a digital note in order to conduct the elections in a peaceful manner and maintain the dignity of the poll data intact.
With just 14 months to go for US 2020 elections, CISA is leaving no stone unturned to check for the possibilities and remedies for any foreign invasions from adversaries such as Russia, North Korea, and China.
Also, a special team from the FBI has been appointed to look into the concerns and keep a track on the whereabouts of International hacking groups and their activities on a regular note. This is to ensure that the cyber landscape in the United States remains clear from any kind of cyber threats.
