Statement from CISA Director Krebs on Election Security Announcement

WASHINGTON – Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs released the following statement tonight on the election security announcement made this evening:

“Tonight, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe announced that we have seen evidence of Iran and Russia taking steps intended to influence public opinion related to our elections. Over the past few years, we have been warning of the high likelihood of our adversaries seeking to influence our democratic process. 

“The intelligence shared today, while alarming, is not surprising. In anticipation of these actions, CISA and the FBI recently released a series of Public Service Announcements describing some of the tactics adversaries might use, the security measures in place to stop them, and the steps you can take to spot and stop foreign influence. 

“We expect actions like these to continue from our adversaries and cyber criminals. As the United States Government, we will continue to share as much information, as quickly as we can with state and local election officials and the American people. Today is a good example of our commitment to quickly make this information available to the public in order to help voters understand and protect against these tactics. 

“We also developed an election security rumor control page – you can find that at CISA.gov/rumorcontrol. We cover a variety of scenarios to help you, as an informed voter, distinguish between rumors and facts on election security issues.  And yesterday, as soon as we saw these reports of threatening emails sent to voters in several states, and subsequent videos, we quickly got to work discrediting these claims and sharing the truth about your ballot. 

“An informed voter is our best defense against these adversarial operations, and there are a few things you can do. First, turn to trusted sources for information like your state and local election officials.  Second, only share information from trusted sources. And third, discourage others from sharing sensational but unverified information.

“Remember, our adversaries are trying to make you lose faith in our electoral process and ultimately in our democracy. The last line of defense in election security is you, the American voter — so be prepared for efforts that call into question the legitimacy of the election.  I’m confident American voters will decide the 2020 elections and you should be too, so get out there and vote with confidence.”

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