ATLANTA — Staffers at the nation’s cybersecurity agency whose job is to ensure the security of U.S. elections have been placed on administrative leave, jeopardizing critical support provided to state and local election offices across the country.
In recent days, 17 employees of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who have worked with election officials to provide assessments and trainings dealing with a range of threats — from cyber and ransomware attacks to physical security of election workers — have been placed on leave pending a review, according to a person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Ten of those employees are regional election security specialists hired as part of an effort to expand field staff and election security expertise ahead of the 2024 election. The regional staffers were told the internal review would examine efforts to combat attempts by foreign governments to influence U.S. elections, duties that were assigned to other agency staff, according to the person.
All were former state or local election officials who were brought in to build relationships across all 50 states and the nation’s more than 8,000 local election jurisdictions. They spent the past year meeting with election officials, attending conferences and trainings, and ensuring officials were aware of the agency’s various cybersecurity and physical security services.
A request for comment Monday to a CISA representative and a representative of the Department of Homeland Security was not returned.
State election officials of both political parties have defended CISA’s work to help secure election offices from a range of cybersecurity and physical threats.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, said the agency’s work had been particularly valuable for county clerks in his state.
“The most value that we’ve got from CISA has been the people that they have on the ground in our state that build direct relationships, not just with us but with the individual county clerks,” Adams said during an interview late last month. “They’re teaching them and helping them check their physical security and their cyber hygiene, and that’s been extremely popular.”
Source: ABC News