Washington State Counties Join Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center

The MS-ISAC is a trusted cybersecurity partner to over 18,000 state, local, tribal, and territorial government organizations who offer low-cost cybersecurity tools. Membership provides counties access to cyber threat intelligence, incident response support, and real-time information sharing – services that will help further protect county elections infrastructure.

“Protecting election security at the local level where our elections are conducted is one of our top priorities as an office. 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. “The federal government is reducing its support for local election security, so we must step up as a state to provide these resources.”

Federal funding cuts have reduced cybersecurity resources available to state and local governments while cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated. The Department of Homeland Security cut funding for the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center (EI-ISAC) in April. The loss of support for the EI-ISAC significantly impacts rural and cyber under-served counties and their access to low-cost cybersecurity tools and assistance. The EI-ISAC had designated 15 of Washington’s 39 counties as cyber-underserved. Membership in the MS-ISAC will help mitigate that loss.

In addition, the OSOS secured an agreement to replace existing Albert sensors with upgraded devices in the coming months. These devices will be leased by the OSOS, which ensures timely replacement under a service-level agreement; far faster than what could be achieved through the state procurement process.  Albert sensors are Intrusion Detection Systems used to identify cyber threats that could impact networks from malicious activity, providing real-time notification to the county.