2016 ELECTION/CYBERWAR/DHS/NATIONAL SECURITY: “The Trump administration’s Homeland Security chief told Congress on Wednesday [3-21-18] that the U.S. government has made significant strides in better protecting the election system after a Russian campaign of hacking and misinformation during the 2016 election.
Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of Homeland Security, testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that information sharing between the federal government and states and localities had improved since the last election. State and local officials, she said, are getting more access to classified information and better support from the federal government in protecting their voting systems… Ms. Nielsen also said that 20 state election officials had been granted security clearances to give them access to such information, and that the Department would immediately brief any state or local official on threats against their systems, even if the information was classified and even if the official lacked a clearance.
But she also stressed that there are limits on what the federal government can do, given that elections remain the responsibility of state, county, local and municipal governments—and that cooperation with Washington by those governments was voluntary.
Ms. Nielsen’s testimony was part of a yearlong investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee into Russian activity during the 2016 election.”
-Byron Tau, “Homeland Security Chief Says U.S. Is Improving Election Defenses,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 21, 2018 01:05pm