Chris Krebs, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, spoke about the importance of backup paper ballots for the upcoming 2020 elections, CNN reported Friday. The paper ballot backups are necessary to perform audits that information technology is not capable of, he said during the DEFCON cyber conference that took place from Aug. 8 to 11.
Krebs also noted that Congress should play its part in contributing to election security policy as complementary to his work. The CISA director also said state and federal lawmakers must work further to meet the financial requirements to update election systems across the country.
“Ultimately when I look at 2020, the top priority for me is engaging as far and wide as possible, touching as many stakeholders as possible and making sure we have auditability in the system,” he said.
