By: Donovan W. Mann – [email protected]
Des Moines, IA – Iowa’s Secretary of State is providing grants to all Iowa counties to help enhance election cybersecurity.
Announced via a release Secretary Paul Pate announces a plan to provide grants of $10,000 to each county. The grants will build upon Iowa’s solid foundation of cyber defense.
Secretary Pate says that “protecting elections with proven cybersecurity methods is a top priority for my office. The security and integrity of Iowa’s elections is strong, and these grants will help ensure they remain strong by boosting our cyber maturity.”
In 2020 Secretary Pate made several new administrative rules to strengthen the security of Iowa’s elections. These rules held create guidelines for development of incident response plans, reporting requirement and improving password strength. They also require counties utilize cyber hygiene scans, assessment and tolls form the Iowa Office of Chief Information Officer and the Department of Homeland Security.
The vast majority of Iowa’s county election website have moved to the “DotGov” domains after Secretary Pate authorized payment to reimburse counties for the transition. Using these domains assures voters they are receiving election information from a trusted source.
The funding to assist counties with cybersecurity service comes from a federal grant to Iowa through the Help America Vote Act.
The grants must be spent in accordance with the requirements of the law. This includes elements form the administrative rules adopted by Secretary Pate in the previous year.