Election Security 2020: How We Should Allocate $425M in Funding

Hire a CISO specifically for election security projects. Just like any other organization would hire a security executive to oversee security efforts, federal and state governments must do the same. While we have heads of security for states and sometimes for municipalities, there is so much decentralization, it’s difficult to get all security experts on the same page and agree to what is necessary. This also helps the common problem of lack of transparency between states and the federal government.

Evaluate the current environment and build a custom election security model. Everything from the network and firewall level, down to the application and data layer need to be evaluated thoroughly and made sure they are fully deployed, operational, and effective. We can often learn from other organizations, from different industries, that have been successful in implementing a strong, transparent, and effective security model for their company. It would be helpful to seek the advice and council of those leaders who have attained that level, and who can also help you see any blind spots. 

Protect the applications in the actual voting systems. We are often quick to slap on perimeter security in hopes that these measures will take care of a majority of potential incidents. But this way of thinking is limited. If there is one thing that the past 15 years has taught us, is that the perimeter is breaking down, with many experts maintaining that it’s already effectively dissolved. This gave rise to frameworks such as zero-trust security, that given the use of cloud technologies and the collaboration economy, plainly states that all aspects of technology and security must defend itself.

We can't rely solely on firewall and network security anymore. We must protect the applications and the data itself. This includes implementing extensive application testing protocols — such as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), and Software Composition Analysis (SCA) — throughout the software development lifecycle, to ensure that your software code isn’t exploited and used to bring down critical infrastructure and other election system technologies. Or worse yet, that your election software isn't hacked, and the actual votes and election results altered thereby hacking our democracy.

Understand the risks of using third-party development and security companies.
Outsourcing development and security projects can introduce risks that any organization must consider before proceeding with this model. These potential hazards can negatively impact the business’s bottom line and bring critical projects to a grinding halt before they can even be launched. Do these third-party vendors deeply understand the problem and the business outcomes you need? It’s also important to know their due diligence and software quality practices when it comes to the development and security of the applications that power election systems.

Tap threat research, SOCs, and incident response. It's well understood that you can't protect what you can't see. Make sure there is a solid operations center on this effort at all times, and that you're learning from the data streams it’s uncovering. This includes research about particular threats, that can feed into an overall incident response plan in the event that something happens. SIEMs and security management platforms can help in this effort.

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