Page 10 - FCW, July 2017
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DHS: Russia tried to hack voting systems in 21 states
Russian hackers probed election- related systems in 21 states in the run-up to the 2016 election, according to Department of Homeland Security officials. They said concerns about privacy prevented them from disclos- ing the states on that list, other than Arizona and Illinois, which have made their own public disclosures.
Samuel Liles, acting director of DHS’ Office of Intelligence and Analy- sis, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the probing was akin to walking down a street to see who is home.
He added that in some cases the hackers got inside the door, but what the Russians compromised had no connection to vote tallying.
In January, DHS declared election systems to be critical infrastructure that the department must prioritize, but the hearing showed there are still questions and concerns about what that entails.
Jeanette Manfra, DHS’ acting dep- uty undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications, said the depart- ment has been in contact with the
“owners” of the affected systems in the 21 states, but could not confirm that all state and local election offi- cials in those states had been made aware that their systems were probed.
She said DHS is working with states to develop incident response playbooks and find ways to share information so they can minimize the potential for future hacks.
Manfra added that DHS has not yet conducted forensic analysis on the affected systems and is working through the process to do so. Before the election, DHS had told all 50 states to scan their systems for vul- nerabilities or signs of intrusion, and the department provided voluntary technical assistance to some states, she said.
During the hearing, however, state officials raised concerns about the fact that no secretary of state has been authorized to receive classified threat data from DHS. They also said there are no clear parameters for DHS oversight of voting systems.
Connie Lawson, Indiana’s secretary of state and president-elect of the
National Association of Secretaries of State, said any federal regulations that reduce the diversity and autonomy of state voting systems could actually increase the risk of a cyberattack that could affect the outcome of an election.
She added that Indiana did not accept help from DHS before the election because state officials believed they had a better grasp of their systems and technical needs.
J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, said that despite assurances from DHS to the contrary, manipulating voting machines and the outcome of an elec- tion is easy. Indeed, he has routinely hacked voting machines as part of his research.
“If Congress works closely with the states, we can upgrade our election infrastructure in time for 2018 and 2020,” he said. “But if we fail to act, I think it’s only a matter of time until a major election is disrupted or stolen in a cyberattack.”
— Sean D. Carberry
Legacy systems still dominate IT spending
Shrinking the amount agencies spend on operations and main- tenance of legacy systems is a long-standing priority and a key argument for establishing an IT modernizationfund.
The latest data from the federal IT Dashboard shows some progress but makes it clear that the majority of most agencies’ IT spending still goes to legacy systems.
The graphs below are based on fiscal 2017 data. The first shows the five Cabinet agencies that spent most heavily on O&M, while the
AGENCIES WITH LARGEST PERCENTAGE OF IT SPENDING DEVOTED TO O&M
100
second shows the five that have freed up the largest shares for development, modernization and 80 enhancement (DME). 60
The third category is the 40
percentage of spending on provisioned services, which
the Office of Management and Budget defines as shared or cloud-based IT services that are “consumed by the agency on an 80 as-needed basis.” 60
Governmentwide, the break- 40
20
Agriculture
Interior
Energy EPA HUD
AGENCIES WITH LARGEST PERCENTAGE OF IT SPENDING DEVOTED TO DME
100
down was 70.9 percent for O&M, 20.9 percent for DME and 8.2 percent for provisioned services.
— Ben Berliner
20
Treasury O&M
SBA HHS
DME Provisioned Services
Commerce Transportation
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