CIS to Lead Development of Best Practices Handbook For Securing U.S. Elections Infrastructure

EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y., Oct. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CIS announced the development of a best practices handbook for election infrastructure to complement the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Elections Assistance Commission's (EAC) initiatives to improve the nation's elections systems on October 10, 2017.

 "There's an urgent need and opportunity to bring together interested groups to collaborate in identifying best practices for election infrastructure, specifically to complement the EAC Voluntary Voting System Guidelines by addressing security best practices for systems that perform voter registration," said John Gilligan, Chairman and Interim Chief Executive officer at CIS, on October 10, 2017, at The Atlantic Council Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security in Washington, D.C.

"CIS is a long-time trusted partner of DHS, NIST, the National Governors Association, universities such as the University of Maryland and the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (SEI CMU), and other key organizations involved with the security of elections systems. And we have more than a decade of experience as a valued partner of state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) governments, 97% of whom confirm that we have increased their cybersecurity in the past few years," said Gilligan. 

CIS counts over 1500 SLTT government organizations as members of its Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS- ISAC), and has excellent relationships with a wide variety of organizations and cyber experts in government, industry and academia (e.g., SEI CMU, DEF CON, universities, think tanks). CIS has already created and maintains consensus best practices products, and could do so for the proposed elections handbook.

"CIS is uniquely qualified to perform this important effort, and we look forward to partnering with DHS and all the other organizations in securing the elections' cornerstone of our democratic process," said Gilligan.

About CIS
CIS is a forward-thinking, non-profit entity that harnesses the power of a global IT community to safeguard private and public organizations against cyber threats. Our CIS Controls and CIS Benchmarks are the global standard and recognized best practices for securing IT systems and data against the most pervasive attacks. These proven guidelines are continuously refined and verified by a volunteer, global community of experienced IT professionals. CIS is home to the Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center^® (MS-ISAC^®), the go-to resource for cyber threat prevention, protection, response, and recovery for U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial government entities. To learn more, visit CISecurity.org and follow us on Twitter: @CISecurity.

CONTACT: Barbara Ware
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