Electoral security

Homeland Security Chief Concerned Hackers Could Infiltrate Voting System

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Wednesday he is increasingly concerned that hackers could infiltrate the nation’s electoral system and said the Obama administration is considering ways to bolster it from attacks.

With an increasing number of voting machines using wireless technology to collect and tabulate votes, the risk of cyber attacks has grown significantly, Johnson said. “We are actively thinking about election cybersecurity … [and] whether our election system,” he said, “is critical infrastructure … like the electric grid.”

Johnson, who spoke with reporters at the Monitor Breakfast in Washington, DC, said designating the nation’s election system as critical infrastructure would trigger significant new cybersecurity investments by DHS and would make it a focus of the agency’s efforts.