--- title: Before Midterm Elections, Is U.S. Fighting Meddling Enough? description: The Trump Administration says it’s ready to support state and local governments against foreign intrusions into voting systems. canonical: https://time.com/5443461/election-meddling-2018/ author: W.J. Hennigan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-05T11:00:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:06.468Z article:section: Politics og:title: Has the U.S. Done Enough to Stop Foreign Election Meddling? og:description: The Trump Administration has confidence in its plan. og:url: https://time.com/5443461/election-meddling-2018/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8121b484a86cfbe/69893e2c97cdff302e6b6a08/midterm-2018-vote-free-trip-to-polls.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4355 og:image:height: 2450 og:image:alt: U.S.-NEW YORK-PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Has the U.S. Done Enough to Stop Foreign Election Meddling? twitter:description: The Trump Administration has confidence in its plan. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8121b484a86cfbe/69893e2c97cdff302e6b6a08/midterm-2018-vote-free-trip-to-polls.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Has the U.S. Done Enough to Stop Foreign Election Meddling? > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ca095fea-1c34-459e-b6d2-9ec2c4f7a9da&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Is Big Tech Ready for a Global War against Misinformation? [Watch (HLS stream): Is Big Tech Ready for a Global War against Misinformation?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/b7MHCOel.m3u8) (4:53)  _Published 2018-09-05. Facebook and Twitter execs testified their companies’ plan to address foreign interference and content moderation._  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Nov 5, 2018 11:00 AM UTC  A voter walks to a booth to fill in her ballot at a polling station in Brooklyn, New York, the United States, on Nov. 8, 2016. A voter walks to a booth to fill in her ballot at a polling station in Brooklyn, New York, the United States, on Nov. 8, 2016. Xinhua News Agency—Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Nov 5, 2018 11:00 AM UTC With just one day left before the 2018 mid-term elections, the Trump Administration says it’s ready to support state and local governments against foreign intrusions into voting systems. In October, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen [acknowledged](https://www.dhs.gov/news-releases/speeches) the nation faced a “dynamic threat,” but she said she felt confident that this year would “be the most secure election we’ve ever had.” It was a bold declaration, considering U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials [sounded the alarm last month](https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/item/1915-joint-statement-from-the-odni-doj-fbi-and-dhs-combating-foreign-influence-in-u-s-elections) about ongoing efforts by Russia, China, and Iran to influence U.S. elections and policies. Nielsen said those efforts were more geared toward pushing out online disinformation and propaganda, but she said DHS hasn’t seen any evidence of a “sustained effort to hack voting infrastructure.” “My biggest concern is that a foreign entity will take the opportunity after the election or the night of the election to attempt to sow discord on social media, suggesting something did not work as it should,” she said Friday during a [Council on Foreign Relations event](https://www.cfr.org/event/conversation-kirstjen-nielsen) in Washington. The [Russian attacks](http://time.com/5338623/russian-hackers-indictments-democratic-national-committee/) during the 2016 elections — through [cyber-hacks and skillful manipulation](http://time.com/5386422/election-security-midterms-russia/) of social media — have forced the federal government to come up with various initiatives over the last 18 months aimed at bolstering security. This culminated in a three-day tabletop exercise in August in which 44 states and the District of Columbia participated in a drill that put election systems to the test. The exercise, which included spearphishing attempts and other cyber hacks, was intended to assess federal government’s ability to share information from Washington and respond. It also tested state and local officials’ ability to take that information and use it to protect their systems, a senior Administration official told reporters last week. “I can tell you, the progress we’ve made since 2016 working with those state and local election officials is immense,” the official said. “We’re not just able to push information down, but we’re receiving a great deal of information back from the state and local officials that allows all of us here at the federal government to understand the threats that are targeting election systems and respond appropriately.” The nerve-center for this operation is called the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), which enables the nation’s 8,800 state and local jurisdictions to share real-time technical information about threats to election infrastructure. DHS officials tell TIME that all 50 state governments and more than 1,300 local jurisdictions participate in the 24/7 threat-sharing program DHS has provided Albert intrusion detection sensors, which detect suspicious activity inside a computer network and relay them to EI-ISAC, to the 43 states that have requested them. Still fears linger among election officials as to whether hackers will be able to breach security firewalls because Albert systems aren’t in every system. A DHS official told TIME that fewer than half of U.S. states have submitted to an on-site DHS assessment of their vulnerabilities to vote hacking. Only 21 states and 13 localities have requested the service, which includes penetration testing and a thorough assessment of potential risk to their systems. “While DHS provides these services to states that request them, a number of other state and local governments may receive similar services either in-house or from third-party contracts,” the official said. The department is providing remotely scanning the computer networks of 36 states and 94 localities, providing them with customized weekly reports that identifies any vulnerabilities and recommends ways to fix them. The fact that not all 50 states have asked for DHS for help, underscores state and local officials’ fierce independence and determination to manage their own elections. But the department can only provide its services to those states that file a request. The warning signals continue to blink red. Hackers found a wide-range of vulnerabilities during this year’s Voting Village event at the annual DefCon security conference in Las Vegas. The participants were able to easily breach voting systems that are currently in service, [according to a 50-page report on their findings](https://defcon.org/images/defcon-26/DEF%20CON%2026%20voting%20village%20report.pdf). For instance, one device, the “ExpressPoll-5000,” running software still in use in several places in the U.S. allowed hackers to take control because it had a weak root password of “password” and the master administrator password of “pasta.” Election officials in one state, Oregon, aren’t worrying about their exposure to such vulnerabilities. In order to circumvent any chance of cyber hijinks, Oregon uses paper ballots. The state’s nearly 2.7 million registered voters are mailed their ballots three weeks before each statewide election, according to a [NBC News report](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/you-can-t-hack-paper-how-oregon-fights-election-meddling-n930481). Russia attempted to infiltrate more than a dozen voter registration systems during its brazen influence campaign in the 2016 election. To deter against a repeat offensive by Moscow or any other nation-state, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in September, mandating sanctions in the event of election interference. Trump has also loosened the reins on hackers in the military and intelligence community to pursue adversaries in cyberspace, according to National Security Advisor John Bolton. “We are right now undertaking offensive cyber-operations in connection with defending the integrity of our electoral process,” he said Wednesday at [a Washington event hosted](https://www.c-span.org/video/?453856-1/john-bolton-discusses-national-security-strategy) by the Alexander Hamilton Society. He acknowledged it was still “too soon to tell” whether it was having the desired deterrent effect. But a bipartisan effort by Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Republican Sen. James Lankford [collapsed earlier this year](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/us/politics/election-security-bill.html) after complaints from state officials led some senators and the White House to pull their support. The Administration has thus far projected confidence in the blueprint it has laid out. Whether the mix of these new measures actually work will have to be seen on Election Day. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] On September 5th, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey face off with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to elaborate on the Silicon Valley's giants' ongoing efforts against foreign influence campaigns And this information ahead of the mid- term elections in November. The back to back House and Senate hearings come almost a year after Democrats and Republicans on the panel criticized Facebook, Twitter, and Google for failing to thwart what they said were Russian efforts meant to influence voters during the 2016 presidential election. It took months for the companies to initially acknowledge the extent of Russian interference, so when these three companies faced Congress together last, the reviews were brutal. I must say though I'm disappointed that you're here and not your CEOs. We would appreciate seeing the top people who are actually making the decision. I went home last night With profound disappointment, I've asked [ COUGH ] I've asked specific questions, I got vague answers. The 2018 midterm less than three months away. Lawmaker's remain concern that Facebook, Google, and Twitter still can be exploited to spread disinformation. With the potential to reach millions of Americans. Virginia Senator Mark Warner and Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee said this. All the evidence this committee has seen today suggests that the platform companies, namely Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and YouTube. Still have a lot of work to do. SInce last year, Facebook, Google, and Twitter have announced new rules designed to combat the spread of misinformation and election interference. Just this past July, Facebook reported that it had disabled 32 pages and profiles that may be linked to Russia. And in August it removed 652 pages, accounts, and groups tied to a newly discovered campaign, with some pages originating in Iran, and others in Russia as well. Microsoft disclosed that it has already spotted targeting attempts on three US political campaigns, including Senator Claire McCaskill. And Twitter's housekeeping resulted in the suspension of 70 million accounts as part of a crackdown on malicious activity on its platform. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have reiterated their companies' responsibility, saying this. We were too slow to spot this, and too slow to act. That is on us, this interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love. We are more determined than our opponents and we will keep fighting. We found ourselves unprepared and ill- equipped for the immensity of the problems that we've acknowledged [ MUSIC ] Abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots and human coordination, misinformation campaigns, and divisive filter bubbles. That's not a healthy public square. Today we're committing to the people and this committee to do that work. And do it openly. However, in taking a more active role in what can and cannot be posted on their platforms, tech giants have to confront accusations of censorship. President Trump went on Twitter to call out social media companies for silencing millions of people. Well, [ UNKNOWN ] has addressed these concerns on CNN, stating this. We do not look at content with regards to political viewpoint or ideology. We need to constantly show that we're not adding our own bias, which I fully admit is more left- leaning. Republicans have zeroed in on his comments and Dorsey alone heads to the House where the Energy and Commerce Committee will address his allegations that Twitter's been silencing conservatives. Despite its efforts to thwart election meddling, Google will be missing from both hearings. [ MUSIC ] The senate rejected the companies offer to have a low level executive represent the organization, instead of Larry Page, the CEO of Google's parent company, Alphabet. For Facebook, Google, and Twitter the immediate challenge is the 2018 mid- term election, but the goal of these hearings are to ensure the tech giants are working together to address a global war against misinformation. As new players such as Iran emerge, the companies must cast a wider net to address these challenges. The bad news, I'm afraid, is that there's still a lot of work to do. And I'm skeptical that ultimately you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own. I believe Congress is going to have to act. 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