Election securityElection Cyber Surge Initiative Launches
On Friday, the University of Chicago’s Cyber Policy Initiative (CPI) announced the launch of the Election Cyber Surge initiative to help address the urgent need to connect state and local election offices with volunteer technologists. The initiative will create a database which will allow officials to search for potential volunteers in their state or city by skillset, subject matter expertise, or cybersecurity experience.
On Friday, the Cyber Policy Initiative (CPI) at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy announced the launch of the Election Cyber Surge initiative to help address the urgent need to connect state and local election offices with volunteer technologists.
CPI says that the Election Cyber Surge will develop a database of technologists who are willing to volunteer their time to help advise state and local election officials and administrators on various cybersecurity issues. To enable access to the type of support election officials urgently need for November 2020, the database will allow officials to search for potential volunteers by skillset, subject matter expertise, or cybersecurity experience.
The Election Cyber Surge program is supported in part by Microsoft, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, The Public Interest Technology University Network (PITUN), and the Election Integrity Foundation.
CPI advises election officials seeking additional information about this initiative to contact (888) 910-1821 or on Twitter @ElectionSurge.
Background
With the global cyber workforce shortage projected to total more than 3.5 million unfilled cyber jobs by 2021, state and local election organizations, as with most public sector organizations, are already struggling to recruit cybersecurity talent and address cyber skill gaps across their existing workforce.
Rapidly addressing cyber skill gaps is critical in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in an unprecedented increase in absentee voting and structural vulnerabilities, and additional strain on the augmented technical assistance that most jurisdictions already struggled to triage given workforce shortages and technical limitations. “In the weeks and months leading up to the election, under-resourced and under-staffed election operations will continue to see a decline in available personnel as health concerns related to COVID-19 persist,” CPI says.
