Public-Private Partnerships for Election Systems Cybersecurity

Political leadership must ensure that the public is aware of the costs, risks, and benefits of these partnerships. An effective partnership undertaking requires an active consultative and engagement with all stakeholders as well as the end-users (CyberSecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency [CISA], 2021). These stakeholders include key entities such as labor unions and non-governmental organizations, as well as civil society groups who may take a mandate of overseeing the environmental and social consequences and the impacts the project has on the rights of the minorities. Moreover, there should be a regulation that safeguards the interest of both parties.

A regulatory policy and governance should oversee the cost reduction in the partnership to ensure the projects bring value for the utilized money. It is also important to consider laws that govern the transfer of risks from public to a private entities. The risk should be identified, measured, defined, and transferred through a contractual term, which dictates an appropriate mechanism of payment. Moreover, the government must ensure that the tender process undergoes sufficient competition to ensure the participation of non-incumbent operators as well as ensuring the integrity of the same. The Central Budget Authority in line with the State’s fiscal policy must ensure that the project is within the financial capability and sustainability of the government.

Overview of Elections Systems Cybersecurity

Election security is a debatable topic, which revolves around how to improve the voting process and how to avoid threats in the US electoral process. The relationship between the ballot box and security concerns focus on voting databases, information operations, and third-party aggregator. Many of these questions linger in the minds of the stakeholders on what should be done (Yescombe & Farquharson, 2018). These issues can be addressed by the state, national and local agencies since the databases of voter registration are a great concern to the governments. Although the private entity may be given a mandate of securing these systems, it is the ultimate role of the civil servants to decide on what to be protected and how it should be done.

Cybersecurity companies have incredible know-how of malware details as well as the malicious activities that can occur in systems and networks. Such companies are also able to defend businesses from cyber-attacks (Homeland Security, 2021).

Public-private partnerships in securing the electoral process involve security service providers, endpoint detection, and response procedures. They have a vast understanding of security threats and concerns they encounter every day (Cui et al., 2018). If the United States government can share techniques, tactics, and procedures of an election threat, private security actors can develop customized detection rules within a visible global network (Germano, 2016). They can also work with their customers who can share information with the state officials on any threat to the election system.

The public-private partnership aims at shedding the light on the election systems’ security. The more the private sector gets involved in unearthing the problems, the lesser the places the atrocities get to hide. Involving a large group of cybersecurity companies in securing these systems can help elucidate malicious activities that are prone to an election security process. The private industry is an essential entity that safeguards public information and resources such as network safety. This brings into consideration how private industry participates in ensuring the US electoral-based system is out of threats.

Currently, the critical infrastructure security system involves many entities such as the National Communications Systems, National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, which was established as a national response, center focusing on communications networks. The Covid-19 pandemic is one of the reasons that led to the US elections being conducted differently (Yescombe & Farquharson, 2018). In 2020, it is believed that there was a launch of cyber-attacks by three countries that were focusing on the presidential elections. The public-private partnership in the US witnessed the importance of working together in fighting cybersecurity threats.

The inclusion of vast technological strategic practices over the internet makes information and data very vulnerable to offenders. Similarly, criminals may work together with their counterparts in targeting the states’ crucial information. As a result, the Obama administration launched an executive order 13691which defines the importance of information sharing by the Department of Homeland Security. Information analysis and sharing main goals include transparency, inclusivity, and flexibility. Another activity of this pa