Senators introduce election cybersecurity bill to improve information sharing

Two Senators on the Intelligence Committee introduced a bill that would let states receive classified information about election threats and help them identify new threats.

Two U.S. senators are introducing a bill that aims to increase states’ preparedness for cyber interference in federal elections amid concerns about foreign meddling in the 2016 election, Reuters reported.

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., announced the Securing America’s Voting Equipment (SAVE) Act on Tuesday, which would authorize the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to issue security clearances to state officials in charge of running federal elections. The clearance would allow the DNI to share classified intelligence about election threats with those officials.

The legislation would also authorize a grant program to let states upgrade their election technology.

While the Department of Homeland Security designated election systems as “critical infrastructure” in January, this bill would reiterate that designation as legislation.

The DHS last month notified 21 states that their election systems were scanned by Russian hackers looking for vulnerabilities. However some of those states challenged that notion and said their systems were never scanned or compromised.

Collins and Heinrich are on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“While the Intelligence Committee’s investigation is still ongoing, one thing is clear: the Russians were very active in trying to influence the 2016 election and will continue their efforts to undermine public confidence in democracies,” Collins said in a joint statement.

“Our democracy hinges on protecting Americans’ ability to fairly choose our own leaders. We must do everything we can to protect the security and integrity of our elections,” Heinrich said.

The SAVE Act also proposes a “Cooperative Hack the Election” program to invite vendors and researchers to find threats and vulnerabilities in election technology, similar to the Voting Village that DEF CON conducted in July.

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Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure