- The Washington Times - Thursday, December 3, 2020

Brandon Wales, the acting head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, affirmed Thursday its assessment about the presidential election that cost his predecessor his job.

President Trump has said he fired CISA’s previous director, Christopher Krebs, after the agency signed and shared a joint statement last month calling the White House race the “most secure” ever.

“The agency stands by the statement that was issued at the beginning of November,” Mr. Wales said during the Aspen Cyber Summit.

“As of right now, we do not have any specific evidence of systems being compromised. But we continue to work with our state and local officials. If they have concerns, we are one phone call away from helping them and assisting them,” Mr. Wales added.

The presidential race ended Nov. 3, and multiple news outlets began calling the race days later for Democratic challenger Joseph R. Biden, who is accordingly set to take his place next month.

Mr. Trump has cited a range of unproven or discredited claims to explain his project defeat, including that he was the victim of a vast and outlandish conspiracy enabled by insecure voting machines.

CISA and other members of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council pushed back against those claims in a joint statement issued Nov. 12 calling it the “most secure” election ever.

“While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections,” the joint statement said.

Mr. Trump cited that statement when he fired Mr. Krebs on Nov. 17. Matthew Travis, CISA’s former deputy director, subsequently resigned, putting Mr. Wales in charge for the last several weeks.

Interviewed during the annual cybersecurity summit, Mr. Wales said CISA has still yet to see any proof to corroborate unsubstantiated claims of any election infrastructure being hacked.

Mr. Wales indicated during the summit that CISA is not responsible for responding to fraud complaints unrelated to the computer systems used in relation to election infrastructure

“Election fraud is the purview of the Department of Justice and state and local authorities that have the responsibility for investigating and prosecuting that,” said Mr. Wales.

Indeed, Attorney General William P. Barr said Tuesday that the Justice Department has found no evidence to suggest the preliminary results of the election are wrong, the Associated Press reported.

• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.

Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Please read our comment policy before commenting.

Click to Read More and View Comments

Click to Hide