Securing our Nations Election Infrastructure

Architecture and Background

Fair elections are at the core of every democracy and are of paramount importance to our national security. The confidence in our electoral process is fundamental to ensuring that every vote- and therefore every voice- matters.

Vulnerability Analysis

In recent years, our Nation has become increasingly uneasy about the potential threats to our election infrastructure. The activities to undermine the confidence in the 2016 presidential election have been well documented and the United States (U.S.) Government has assessed that our adversaries will apply lessons learned from the 2016 election and will continue in their attempts to influence the U.S. and their allies' upcoming elections, including the 2018 mid-term elections.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

As the lead agency for securing the Nation's cyber infrastructure, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a mission to maintain public trust and protect America's election systems. In January 2017, the DHS Secretary designated election systems as critical infrastructure. This designation means election infrastructure has become a priority in shaping our planning and policy initiatives, as well as how we allocate our resources.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

DHS is working directly with election officials across 8,000 election jurisdictions and throughout 55 States and territories, to help them safeguard their systems. As the threat environment evolves, DHS will continue to work with state and local partners to enhance our understanding of the threat, share timely and actionable threat information, and provide essential physical and cybersecurity tools and resources available to the public and private sectors to increase security and resiliency. DHS is committed to ensuring that our adversaries never succeed with their campaign to undermine our democracy.