To the consternation of some state government officials, the Department of Homeland Security on Jan. 6 moved to make state election systems part of the critical infrastructure sectors under its protection.
The move comes in the wake of allegations of Russian hacking into political targets during the recent election period, and specific complaints of attempts to penetrate state election and voter data systems.
On Jan. 6, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson formally designated state election assets — including polling places; centralized vote tabulation locations used to support the election process; storage facilities; and related information and communications technology — as U.S. critical infrastructure.
