14 DAY TRIAL // Kirstjen Nielsen, Department of Homeland Security Secretary, stated in a conference hosted by The Washington Post that during this year's midterms the DHS will be better prepared to react to cyber threats, according to a report by Cyberscoop.
This statement comes after the DHS approximately one entire year to let US officials know that their computing systems have been scanned (and possibly infiltrated) by Russian threat actors during the presidential campaign from 2016.
As Nielsen said, this year the DHS is a lot better prepared when it comes to security incident response, as it has set up a wide range of sensors designed to automatically send alerts of any ongoing security breach attempts.
Furthermore, DHS has changed its strategy as it will work a lot closer with local and state officials during the 2018 midterms, allowing for faster communication of security incidents when needed.
The DHS Secretary also announced that the department would also use a so-called "situational awareness room," designed to keep a close eye on all cybersecurity events taking place during the elections from the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center.
The DHS made it its most important mission for the 2018 midterms to have as fast as possible reaction time to election security incidents
In addition, the DHS will also make use of extra threat information gathered from the US intel community and will use gaster and more streamlined communication channels to deliver any relevant information to local and state official who need it to fend off any security attacks.
All organizations and agencies involved in the process of collecting and sharing information on election security events will use the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) established by the Center for Internet Security.
The Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center is a specialized structure created as a platform for exchanging detailed info regarding election systems' cyber threats and vulnerabilities.
The Elections ISAC's 1,000 participants make it the fastest growing US ISAC and, according to Nielsen, "that shows that we have overcome the trust deficit that perhaps existed in some relationships at the beginning between federal and state and local officials."