WA Secretary of State to fund cybersecurity membership for county auditors

(The Center Square) – The Washington Office of the Secretary of State announced it will fund Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center, or MS-ISAC, memberships for county auditors, which it argues will help improve election security systems.

Created in 2003 and operated by the Center for Internet Security, MS-ISAC shares cyber threat information and provides resources to strengthen cybersecurity for members. The center is a part of the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center, or EI-ISAC, which recently had a reduction in federal funding of $10 million. The funding had previously gone toward activities under a cooperative agreement with the CIS. According to Secretary of State’s Office, EI-ISAC has designated 15 of Washington’s 39 counties as “cyber-underserved,” meaning those area lack access to cybersecurity resources, expertise, infrastructure, or funding necessary to defend against a cyber attack.

“By providing MS-ISAC membership for all of our county partners, we ensure they have continued access to cybersecurity services,” Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a statement.

OSOS announcement also revealed it intends to replace existing Albert sensors with upgraded devices leased by OSOS to county auditors. Under a law passed last year, all county auditors must exclusively contract with CIS to provide them with Albert Sensors, with the threat of removal from office if they do not comply. The bill was introduced after two counties cancelled their contracts with CIS after they were unnotified of cyberattacks despite the use of Albert sensors.

Albert sensors are installed via software on hardware and scan a network for potential malicious attacks and alert the system managers. Some local government officials noted that they are unable to monitor what the sensors while connected to their networks.

The Center Square reached out to OSOS regarding the total cost of providing membership to the counties, whether the memberships were voluntary or not, and how much the Albert sensors would cost to replace. However, OSOS did not respond by publication.

The Center Square also reached out to the Washington State Association of County Auditors for comment on the OSOS providing membership funding, but did not receive a response.