“I enjoyed the format and the videos. It wasn’t boring.”

Against all odds, the 2020 U.S. general election was the most secure in American history. This wasn’t by accident or pure luck, rather it was the result of years of work across public and private sectors — building relationships, sharing information, and empowering election offices to identify and respond to cyber threats and influence operations.

Since the cyber attacks in 2016, the field has been galvanized around the commitment to deeply invest in the security of our elections. An example is the 2018 founding of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the release of their catalogue of cyber hygiene services that include vulnerability scanning and phishing campaign assessments to election offices at no cost. Another example is the Elections Infrastructure – Information Sharing Analysis Center (EI-ISAC) which provides its members with free resources like election-specific threat intelligence and security best practices. And there’s the Defending Digital Democracy Project at Harvard Kennedy School (D3P) that produced the leading election cybersecurity playbooks and facilitated tabletop exercises with election offices across the country.

Our own organization, Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), also played a role in helping election departments advance their security efforts. Even with 2020 behind us, CTCL is continuing to support election security with free training sponsored by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

Free Self-Paced Cybersecurity Training for Election Officials

At CTCL, we believe one of our roles is to build, curate, and package resources for election officials on the most pressing issues they face, and then deliver those resources in a way that’s easy for them to adopt. With this in mind, in 2018 we collaborated with the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) to create a 3-part training series, Cybersecurity for Election Officials. Together, we were able to use the courses to promote many of the services that CISA, EI-ISAC, D3P, and others had already developed.

The series begins with an introduction to cybersecurity terms and definitions. The first course also covers simple yet powerful actions each election official can take to improve security like creating stronger passwords and implementing two-factor authentication. The second course examines cybersecurity from a systems-level perspective and asks election offices to apply elements of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework core, the 5 Functions, to help ensure continuity of operations for their election infrastructure. Finally, the third course focuses on ways election officials can communicate with the public about how they prepare for and respond to cyber threats.

At the start of 2020 CTCL teamed up with the Virginia Department of Elections to deliver the self-paced cybersecurity series to local election offices across the commonwealth. The training reached over 750 election officials and we received lots of good feedback on the courses. Daniel Persico, Chief Information Officer with the Virginia Department of Elections, told us “The content and delivery of the CTCL courses could benefit all local election officials, nationwide. Everyone has a responsibility to security and protecting our democracy.”

Following this success in Virginia, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) partnered with CTCL in 2020 to provide the cybersecurity series to every election official in the country free of charge. And even though the 2020 election is behind us, the work of safeguarding our democracy continues. This training will help election officials improve cybersecurity in their office, stay up-to-date with election best practices, and show the public they take cybersecurity seriously.

Election officials can now enroll in these courses as part of a self-paced module. Working at your own pace, you can complete each of the three courses in about 90 minutes. If you’re on the fence about whether the series is a good fit your election office, consider these reactions from officials who have completed the training:

• “The videos were short, concise, and very informative. They kept my attention very well and I found them to be quite interesting.”
• “This course did a good job of communicating a complex topic and making it relevant to everyday interactions.”
• “This is valuable and I appreciate the differentiation between the various election systems and their vulnerabilities.”
• “The examples and practice situations in 301 were the most helpful to me; having the example situations and how to respond to them in the office, to the public, and to the press all at once is the most realistic scenario, so I appreciated having that practice.”
• “I enjoyed the format and the videos. It wasn’t boring.”

To date, the top 5 states or territories with the highest total enrollment numbers are Virginia, Ohio, South Carolina, California, and Florida. And the top 5 states or territories with the highest percentage of their jurisdictions enrolled in the training are Alaska, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, and South Carolina. Make sure your state or territory doesn’t miss out on this opportunity – the training is available for free for all U.S. election departments through the summer of 2021.

Introducing a Free Self-Paced Course on Combating Election Misinformation

Along with cyber threats, influence operations will also be part of U.S. elections beyond 2020. That’s why in addition to the 3 cybersecurity courses, we’re also announcing the launch of the newest CTCL self-paced course, Combating Election Misinformation, available now. Similar to the cybersecurity series, the misinformation course was created in collaboration with CDT.

In Combating Election Misinformation, election officials will:

• Get familiar with terms and concepts related to information operations
• Identify different forms of misinformation, malinformation, and disinformation and how to respond
• Develop resilience with a defensive communications strategy

All U.S. election officials are invited to attend, especially those with limited exposure to the concept of influence operations in elections. When the course was originally delivered in July 2020 over Zoom, an election official who attended said that it was their first webinar about the misinformation of elections. After attending, they felt more prepared to both identify election misinformation and had a better understanding of what to do in response. To get a sense of the course covers, be sure to check out the free Checklist for Combating Election Misinformation.

If you’re a state election office, you’re invited to explore CTCL’s full self-paced catalogue of courses and see how the content aligns with your training program for the local election officials in your state. Similar to the experience in Virginia, we’d love the opportunity to partner with you so your locals receive continuing education credit for completing these free, self-paced courses.

2020 was a turbulent year, and we made it to the other side so we might make progress on the critical work of helping ensure our elections are more secure. Election officials continue to make U.S. democracy happen for all of us, and we’re proud to support their work alongside other private and public sector partners. Please contact us at [email protected] to learn more about CTCL’s professional development program for election officials.