In the wake of the Wisconsin Election Commission’s Grant providing $1,200 for municipalities to up their security game and the 2020 presidential election looming in the not-so-distant future, local municipalities and governments are left to build robust election security protocols to protect their election data.
Reuters recently published reports from US Government Security Officials concerned that foreign hackers in 2020 not only will target election data, but the databases to manipulate, disrupt, or destroy data.
Wisconsin’s Election Commission smartly reacted in September to approve a $1.1 million election grant program to help cities and towns beef up security to prepare. The program – which utilizes federal funding – only would make available $1,200 for each municipality to reach compliant levels. The amount is nice, especially for smaller municipalities with small budgets, but isn’t nearly enough to cover the security upgrades needed for complete safety in local government IT departments.
COMPLIANCE TERMS ARE ONLY A START
In addition to announcing the grant, the Wisconsin Election Commission put out requirements for compliant computer hardware and software, compliant operating systems (OS), and IT support as a benchmark for securing election data.
WEC does a good job identifying and requiring the basics; Patch Management for the OS, anti-virus software, computer support, web-filtering services, and offsite backup management but does not require Multifactor Authentication or password management software.
SWICKtech and its team of cybersecurity professionals believe that all these techniques (and more) must be used in a multi-layered approach to provide vital security from foreign threats during the 2020 presidential election.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP TO LOCKING DOWN YOUR ENVIRONMENT
We urge you to diagnose your security landscape immediately. SWICKtech provides helpful, free tools for letting you know where your organization lands on a five-tiered security model. Our team will consult with you and give you the best option, based on your environment, to lock down your data.
