The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 14, 2025

More Trump administration mass layoffs at CISA have experts raising concerns over U.S. readiness for cyber attacks on election infrastructure and federal agency networks.  An additional 100 inhouse and contracted cyber specialists were terminated in early March.  

The terminations raise the number of layoffs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to an estimated 300, though new CISA leadership has denied recent layoffs. The agency was created in 2017 to protect the U.S. from both foreign and domestic cyber attacks, and serves all agencies of the U.S. government.  

As we reported in February, a team assisting state election officials in improving and hardening election systems from foreign and domestic hackers was laid off.  Votebeat reported March 11th that CISA’s new leadership informed state election officials that it had suspended operations and funding for the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center. 

In addition, a McCarthy-like effort is underway to purge CISA staffers who ran 2020 efforts to combat foreign and domestic disinformation in social media, some concocted by the Trump campaign and its allies.  

Reports in cybersecurity journals say the latest layoffs involve so-called “Red Teams” which pressure test the security of government networks.   CBS News quoted one cybersecurity expert let go in February as saying about U.S. infrastructure,  “We’re being targeted daily, hourly and every single minute.”

We have more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org I’m Brian Beihl. 

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

American Democracy Minute –  CISA Pauses All Election Security Programs for Full Review

The Register – CISA pen-tester says 100-strong red team binned after DOGE canceled contract
CISA – Statement on CISA’s Red Team
Infosecurity Magazine – Trump Administration Shakes Up CISA with Staff and Funding Cuts
TechCrunch – DOGE axes CISA ‘red team’ staffers amid ongoing federal cuts

CBS News – Cybersecurity agency’s top recruits decimated by DOGE cuts
Center for Internet Security – “Due to the termination of funding by the Department of Homeland Security, the Center for Internet Security no longer supports the EI-ISAC.”

Groups Taking Action:

Common Cause Election Disinformation, Protect Democracy, Election Worker Legal Defense Network,  Center for Internet Security/ISA, IssueOne/Don’t Mess With US.org

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ProtectElections #CISA #DOGE #ElectionIntegrity

The post DOGE Cuts 300 Experts From CISA’s Election Security Team and U.S. Agency Cybersecurity; Funding for State Cybersecurity Also Suspended appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for June 18, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Yesterday, we reported on government warnings of foreign election interference by Russia and other actors. But after years of GOP demands for “election integrity” reforms, majority members of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee last week eliminated election security funding from the 2025 budget.

Election security includes everything from protection of voters and election workers, to upgrading voting machines and infrastructure, to keeping domestic and foreign actors from hacking that infrastructure.

The vehicle for that funding is Help America Vote Act grants, for which States Newsroom reports $55 Million dollars was appropriated in the last funding cycle. HAVA helps states fund big ticket items like voting machine upgrades, development of online voter registration portals, or hardening infrastructure against attacks. The Biden administration asked for $96 million dollars to assist states with their projects, some of which take years to complete. The request was cut to ZERO for the coming fiscal year.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission, charged with HAVA’s oversight and providing guidance to federal, state and local agencies to secure elections, had its funding slashed, too. USA Today reports that the administration had requested $134 Million dollars for the EAC; it got just $20 Million – $7 Million less than the previous budget. The 2025 budget is scheduled for completion in October, and has yet to be negotiated with the Senate.
Learn more and see the groups taking action at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Brennan Center for Justice – (2019 Report) – Defending Elections: Federal Funding Needs for State Election Security
Brennan Center for Justice – Securing the 2024 Election
States Newsroom via West Virginia Watch – States struggle with unreliable federal funding for making sure elections are secure
USA Today – (Opinion) Republicans wail about secure elections while slashing funding for election security
Cyberscoop – House Republicans propose eliminating funding for election security
U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Election Security Preparedness
Issue One – Securing 2024: Defending US Elections through Investment and Reform

Groups Taking Action:
Brennan Center for Justice, Issue One,  The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights 

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ProtectElections #ElectionSecurity 

The post The Feds Warned States to Harden Election Infrastructure. The U.S. House Appropriations Committee Just Eliminated the Election Security Grant Funding to Help States to Do It appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 16, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Election security experts warned the country’s secretaries of state to take immediate steps to harden their election systems in both cities and rural precincts,  and prepare for cyber and AI election interference from both foreign and domestic bad actors.

Stateline News reports that representatives from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA,  and the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch of the FBI, spoke at the winter meetings of the national associations of Secretaries of State and State Election Directors.  

Attendees were warned of a heightened risk of election interference using cyber attacks from U.S. adversaries, including Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.   This includes the possibility of attacks on election and other infrastructure, including ransomware attacks.  Fulton County, Georgia experienced such an attack in early January.    

CISA announced new webpage last week called Protect2024, making recommendations to states and municipalities on hardening infrastructure. 

Concerns were also raised about AI, which could make it easier to trick voters with misinformation, such as the fake Biden robocall in New Hampshire, or targeting legal immigrant citizens in their languages.

All this, in addition to continued threats of violence to election officials from homegrown domestic extremists.  After fentanyl-laced letters were sent to election offices, officials were advised to have the overdose reversal drug Narcan available.

We have links to the Stateline News article at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.  

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Stateline News –  Feds deliver stark warnings to state election officials ahead of November
Associated Press – (2023) Election offices are sent envelopes with fentanyl or other substances. Authorities are investigating
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – New webpage: #Protect2024
National Association of Secretaries of State – NASS 2024 Winter Conference Highlights
National Association of State Election Directors – NASED Highlights Reminders for the 2024 Elections

Groups Taking Action:
Committee for Safe & Secure Elections, Brennan Center for Justice, Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center, Issue One/National Council on Election Integrity

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ProtectElections #ProtectPollWorkers #CyberSecurity 

The post CISA & FBI Warn Secretaries of State to Prepare for Potential Cyberattacks and AI Voter Suppression Before the 2024 Election appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for August 1, 2023

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

The head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, spoke July 25th to state election directors, announcing an investment in new regional staff helping states protect their elections.  She also cited artificial intelligence as an emerging threat.

CISA Director Jen Easterly is a West Point graduate and Oxford Rhodes Scholar who retired as a Lt. Colonel from the US Cyber Command after 20 years of service.  She received two Bronze Stars, and was later nominated by President Biden for the CISA post in 2021.

Easterly told election directors that the difference in cyber security for elections was QUOTE “Night & Day,” compared with 2016, and that information sharing of intelligence on emerging threats to elections would continue to be core to CISA’s mission.   Easterly told the Associated Press that she sees artificial intelligence in the hands of bad actors as a concern, but that she had confidence in the security of the 2024 election itself.

Easterly noted that CISA is adding additional regional election security advisors to consult on with states and municipalities, and said at the end of her speech:  

“As we know, elections are the golden thread that run through our democracy. Election security is not a partisan issue; rather it is an issue of preserving that foundational fabric of our democracy.”

We have a link to her speech and to the CISA website at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.   I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – Director Easterly’s Remarks to the National Association of State Election Directors’ Summer Conference

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – Bio of Director Jen Easterly
Associated Press – Head of US cybersecurity agency sees progress on election security, with more work needed for 2024
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – Election Security Rumor vs. Reality
U.S. Congress – Election Worker Protection Act

Groups Taking Action:
Common Cause Election Disinformation, Protect Democracy, Election Worker Legal Defense Network

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ProtectElections #ProtectPollWorkers

The post U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Head Announces Additional Election Security Advisors to Assist States in Securing Elections appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for January 16, 2023

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Associated Press – An Iowa official’s wife is charged with 52 counts of voter fraud in congressional race
Sioux City Journal – Wife of Woodbury County elected official faces 52 counts of voter fraud
U.S. Department of Justice – Woman Arrested for Voter Fraud Scheme
Alabama News Network – Perry County Commission Chairman Albert Turner, Jr. Indicted on Voter Fraud Charges
Alabama.com – Perry County Commission Chairman charged with voting multiple times, ‘stuffing’ ballot box
The Brennan Center – The Myth of Voter Fraud

Today’s Script:  (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

We’re very careful on the ADM when we talk about voter fraud.  It happens, but in tiny numbers, and it’s not widespread as alleged by former President Trump.  Today, we have two cases of what may be real voter fraud – but guess what?  They got caught.

Last week, Kim Phuong Taylor was arrested in Sioux City, IA on 52 counts of voter fraud.  Phuong Taylor is the spouse of a 2020 Republican candidate for U.S. Congress. 

The indictment alleges that for the 2020 primary and general elections, Phuong Taylor filled out registration forms for members of the Sioux City Vietnamese community who had limited or no English, requested absentee ballots for them, and collected and submitted those ballots–some without their knowledge. She allegedly repeated it to aid her husband in the general election for a county post. The federal penalty for the Congressional race could be as much as 5 years per count.

In Alabama, Perry County Commission Chairman Albert Turner Jr., son of a civil rights activist, is charged with illegally voting during the May 2022 Democratic primary by filling out additional ballots.   He is also charged with collecting and mailing an undisclosed number of ballots during the November 2022 general election.   Turner denies the charges.

The moral of these stories?  What little fraud there is gets caught, because our system works.

We have links to articles at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.

The post <strong>Voter Fraud Is Extremely Rare. Most Get Caught, Like These Alleged Cases in Iowa & Alabama</strong> appeared first on American Democracy Minute.