it takes security seriously, but experts say it’s
difficult to confirm given the limited visibility
into their operations.
A spokeswoman for Election Systems and
Software said the company “fully supports”
additional oversight and increased security
testing of elections equipment, adding the
company has submitted its equipment to testing
by independent security researchers.
“ES&S agrees that all vendors should be held
accountable for following best practices for all
aspects of security, as ES&S does, and agrees
that vendors should be American owned
and operated, as ES&S is,” said spokeswoman
Katina Granger.
The report noted that other industries also
viewed as critical to national security, such as
defense contractors, face substantial oversight
and must comply with various requirements.
Norden said much of the focus within election
security has been on the machines and how best
to secure them but critical questions remain
about how secure the vendors themselves are.
He noted that former special counsel Robert
Mueller described in his report how Russian
agents in 2016 targeted employees of a voting
technology company and installed malware on
the company’s network. Details on the extent of
the breach have not been made public.
“Vendors are responsible for election security
in a way that folks probably don’t understand,”
Norden said. “When we talk about election
security, we talk about what election officials are
doing, but we’ve left this big part of the puzzle
out of the discussion.”