Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump doesn't think cybersecurity is important. So what if Russia or China or Iran hacks an election? No big deal, right? The ayatollahs are all conservative so they must be Republicans, right? In April, Trump fired Gen. Timothy Haugh, the director of the NSA and head of the U.S. Cyber Command, on the advice of noted cybersecurity expert Laura Loomer, who didn't think the widely respected Haugh was Trumpish enough.
Now the saga is continuing. In the past, federal agencies have helped states and local governments with both cyber and physical security threats. They do this because the states and local governments generally have small security budgets combined with a total absence of expertise. But this year, the feds will not come charging over the hill to the rescue. The election monitoring room CISA (the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency) will be closed. In past elections, it was a resource states and localities could call on for security help. No more.
In addition, the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center has had its budget zeroed out, so it is gone. It collected and shared cyberthreat information in real time. States, counties and cities are now on their own. Most of them have no security infrastructure and are totally unprepared to ward off any attacks.
In addition, the CISA staff who monitored election equipment, including field workers who went out there and
inspected voting equipment, were all laid off. Instead, monitors were sent to California and New Jersey to
intimidate observe voters instead of making sure the equipment wasn't hacked. As it turns out, it didn't work and
the voters weren't intimidated in large numbers. Maybe next time.
It is worth pointing out that the thinking of Trump (and whatever acolytes are behind this) is exceedingly narrow-minded. And we don't just mean in terms of putting personal needs ahead of the nation's needs, though it's that as well. We mean that many (and maybe all) of the nations that might interfere with elections don't care about Republican vs. Democratic, per se. They care about current regime vs. new regime. And if they don't like the current regime, say because it is unpredictable on trade policy, or because it's careless about nuclear weapons, they could well try to achieve regime change, even if those countries are ostensibly "conservative." (V)