The US Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is a division of the Homeland Security Department, has launched an initiative to help state election officials improve the security of voter registration databases in order to prevent ransomware attacks in the period leading up to the 2020 presidential election.
CISA aims to provide educational material, advice and security solutions including vulnerability scanning and penetration testing of the Internet-facing databases that are considered to be high risk targets for politically or financially motivated hackers. CISA director Christopher Krebs said the initiative was needed because “recent history has shown that state and county governments and those who support them are targets for ransomware attacks.”
Read more: US officials fear ransomware attack against 2020 election
