Transitioning to .Gov: Helping Mitigate Election Office Cybersecurity and Impersonation Risks

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) jointly released The .gov Domain: Helping Mitigate Election Office Cybersecurity and Impersonation Risks. This guide urges election offices adopt a .gov domain to help them and other state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) government entities mitigate impersonation and cybersecurity risks. Similar to .com, .org, or .us domains, organizations use the .gov domain for verified online services, like websites or email. Unlike other domains, .gov is only available to official U.S.-based government organizations and publicly controlled entities. This means that users visiting a .gov website or receiving an email from a .gov email address can be more confident that the content is genuine government information. Similarly, use of a .gov domain can help the public better recognize official government sites and emails while avoiding phishing attempts and websites that impersonate government officials.