EI-ISAC Launches Cyber STRONG Campaign

Awareness campaign aims to provide election officials with action steps to continue the cybersecurity progress already made as midterms approach

 

EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y., June 29, 2022 – The Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (EI-ISAC®) today announced the official launch of the Cyber STRONG Campaign, an awareness initiative aiming to provide U.S. election officials with action steps to continue their progress on election cybersecurity.

The first step any election office should take is signing up for EI-ISAC membership. EI-ISAC members gain instant access to election-specific cyber threat intelligence and enrollment in no-cost web security and endpoint detection and response services to protect election IT systems against cyber threats.

“At the EI-ISAC, we recognize that cybersecurity is one of many priorities of election officials across the country,” said EI-ISAC Senior Director Marci Andino. “With that in mind, we’ve designed the Cyber STRONG Campaign to make it easy for hardworking election officials to implement specific action steps to continue the progress they’ve made in enhancing their cyber defenses as we head into the mid-term elections.”

The Cyber STRONG Campaign highlights no-cost resources offered by the EI-ISAC to support the cybersecurity posture of election offices under the following six action steps:

1. Stay connected
2. Train & communicate
3. Ready your network & devices
4. Own your environment
5. Nurture your cyber strength
6. Go tell your story

The full campaign details can be found at https://www.cisecurity.org/ei-isac/cyber-strong.

“The Cyber STRONG campaign is intended to frame steps that will help election offices achieve solid and specific cybersecurity measures to support secure elections in their jurisdictions,” said Trevor Timmons, EI-ISAC Executive Committee Chair and Chief Information Officer at Colorado Department of State. “At the end of the day, the responsibility for election cybersecurity rests with election officials, and the EI-ISAC has consistently demonstrated a commitment to being there for them with the practical, actionable recommendations that will help make a difference in cyber defense across the election community.”

The EI-ISAC is a community of more than 3,300 member organizations among state, local, tribal and territorial entities that support U.S. election officials. Membership in the EI-ISAC comes at no cost and entitles election offices to election-specific intelligence sharing, cybersecurity best practices, along with no-cost cybersecurity services monitored by the Center for Internet Security® (CIS®) Security Operations Center (SOC). Leveraging the largest election-specific threat database, the CIS SOC acts as a full-time cyber defense partner to election offices by monitoring and analyzing their environment all day, every day for threats against their network and devices, eliminating an average of 75% of false positives common to many cybersecurity solutions and escalating credible threats to the election office for action.

One of the action steps recommended by the Cyber STRONG program is enrolling in Malicious Domain Blocking & Reporting (MDBR). This web security service is highly effective at blocking attempts to connect to malicious domains and can be implemented across an organization’s IT environment in as little as 15 minutes.

“We believe that strong elections are cyber strong, and it is our mission and privilege at the EI-ISAC to support election officials and the election community with the resources at the heart of the Cyber STRONG Campaign,” said Andino. “I’ve walked many miles in their shoes, and I know that time is precious and the work is demanding. The steps in this program will not take much time and will have a dramatic impact on cyber preparedness for this election and many more after that.”

For media inquiries about the EI-ISAC Cyber STRONG Campaign, please contact [email protected].

About the EI-ISAC

The Elections Infrastructure Information and Analysis Center® (EI-ISAC®) is a community of dedicated election officials and cybersecurity professionals working side-by-side to ensure the integrity of elections among U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) governments. We are a trusted cybersecurity partner for election offices and associations, providing EI-ISAC membership to these organizations at no cost. The EI-ISAC works closely with election officials and security and technology personnel to provide the highest standards of election security, including incident response and remediation through our team of cyber experts. Our 24x7x365 Security Operations Center (SOC) monitors, analyzes, and responds to cyber incidents targeting election offices and government entities. We develop and share best practices for securing election infrastructure, incorporating security into election technology procurements, and helping manage election supply chain risks.

About CIS

The Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS®) makes the connected world a safer place for people, businesses, and governments. We are a community-driven nonprofit, responsible for the CIS Controls® and CIS Benchmarks™, globally recognized best practices for securing IT systems and data. We lead a global community of IT professionals to continuously refine these standards to proactively safeguard against emerging threats. Our CIS Hardened Images® provide secure, on-demand, scalable computing environments in the cloud. CIS is home to the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (MS-ISAC®), the trusted resource for cyber threat prevention, protection, response, and recovery for U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) government entities, and the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (EI-ISAC®), which supports the cybersecurity needs of U.S. elections offices. To learn more, visit CISecurity.org or follow us on Twitter: @CISecurity.