Top National Guard officials say their cyber components have improved capabilities for incident response since the 2016 election, but have not received calls to assist with active election security support efforts ahead of the upcoming November midterms.
Maj. Gen. Michael Stone and Col. Kenneth Donnelly, of the Michigan and Louisiana National Guards, respectively, told attendees at a Friday Wilson Center event they have seen greater coordination with election infrastructure private sector partners but called on the Department of Homeland Security to enhance its own information sharing assets.
“The National Guard is on standby. We are in close communication with the secretary of state. We are working as a National Guard to look at what the bidirectional flow of information looks like between state and federal partners, so that we can share information to know what a government response would be to the election,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly and Stone both said they don’t have active requirements for election support at the moment, but are preparing to respond and advise on cyber defense operations if their states experience interference attempts on election day.
Stone said Michigan’s state police has the lead with DHS for election security efforts, and his National Guard remains in an advisory role until called on for support.
“We’re standing ready to assist in cyber, but so far we have not been officially asked,” Stone said.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said her department has not seen indications adversaries preparing to interfere with the upcoming election as Russian actors did in the 2016 election, while cautioning states to remain alert to new threats and suspicious activity on critical infrastructure (Defense Daily, October 2).
Stone said while information sharing from the state level has improved, there is room for DHS to grow its capability for giving cyber alert data back to National Guard and election officials. He particularly cited a need for greater funding to support DHS’ Computer Emergency Readiness Teams (CERT).
“I appreciate DHS’ honesty when they say we can come with a CERT team if your state asks but there’s limited capability and bandwidth,” Stone said. “There is information sharing, but one of our frustrations from the state is there’s no mechanism for them to share it back.”
Donnelly said Louisiana has improved coordination with private sector partners on cyber security efforts following the 2016 election, including setting a cyber security commission last December with public officials and industry stakeholders.
The Louisiana National Guard also entered into a cooperative research and development agreement with Louisiana State University and established a cyber range to train critical infrastructure partners on cyber response efforts.
“The National Guard does have cyber capabilities. If asked to support, we will support,” Donnelly said. “We do have the assets within Louisiana to be able to provide support, whether it’s resiliency reviews, we’ve done some of those vulnerability assessments and risk assessments within the state.”