Biden Cybersecurity Head Warns of ‘Glitches’ During Midterms

The official said to expect “normal” errors and glitches.

QUICK FACTS:
  • U.S. cybersecurity chief Jen Easterly said that her agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), does “not censor information.”
  • According to Easterly, Americans should expect “normal” glitches and errors to come out during the midterm elections.
  • The Biden appointee spoke about her agency’s role in securing the elections and said that they are not involved in law enforcement despite being in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
  • Easterly argued the errors they will likely encounter or hear about in the election are normal, and election officials have asked her to make sure Americans get that message.
  • “There are going to be errors. There are going to be glitches. That happens in every election. But that’s why there are multiple layers of security controls and resilience built into the system… [These] are normal things. They’re not nefarious,” she added.
EASTERLY’S COMMENTS:
  • “I want to be really clear about what CISA’s role is in this. You know, we are not an intel agency. We’re not a law enforcement agency,” she said during a talk at the Center for Washington-based think tank Strategic and International Studies.
  • “We don’t work with the platforms on what they do around content. That is entirely their decision. It is their terms of service. And I want to be very clear about this: We do not censor information. “I want to be very clear,” she added. “We do not censor anything. What social media platforms do, what the news does, is entirely their decision.”
  • However, the administration official did say there are efforts by “foreign adversaries to sow discord among the American people, to undermine confidence in the integration of our elections, and to incite violence against election officials. It’s a significant concern because you think about these adversaries … that are trying to break us apart, about Americans that are trying to undermine, you know, integrity in our elections. We are very concerned about this.”
BACKGROUND:
  • CISA was established in 2018 to “understand, manage, and reduce risk” to the vital physical and cyber infrastructure that Americans depend on every day, according to Easterly. CISA is part of the Department of Homeland Security and is said to manage infrastructure for elections.
  • Easterly is one of a number of important figures from President Joe Biden’s administration who have been asked to give testimony under oath in a deposition about their roles in a case that claims there was a conspiracy between the federal government and Big Tech firms to restrict information by its users.
  • The case plaintiffs include the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri and others. The case alleges that Easterly “supervises the ‘nerve center’ of federally directed censorship,” according to a court filing.
  • Election software administered by Dominion Voting Systems awarded thousands of votes to Biden in Michigan after a staff worker failed to update it is used in a majority of U.S. states, including statewide in Georgia where it has reportedly been implicated in several voting-related “glitches” there, according to Just the News.

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