The Department of Homeland Security has convened a new government council for election infrastructure security in cooperation with the Election Assistance Commission, the National Association of Secretaries of State and election officials across U.S.DHS said Saturday the Government Coordinating Council for the Election Infrastructure Subsector is comprised of three members from the federal government and 24 representatives from state and local governments.
The department uses the GCC structure for each critical infrastructure sector to help coordinate the security efforts of government and private sector entities.
The GCC framework is designed to implement a mechanism for threat information sharing between the federal government and council members.
DHS identified election infrastructure as a subsector of the Government Facilities critical infrastructure sector in January to prioritize cybersecurity assistance to state and local election officials and to show that election systems are entitled to critical infrastructure protections from the U.S. government.
