{"id":1726673,"date":"2022-11-06T07:38:51","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T12:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1726673"},"modified":"2022-11-06T22:19:47","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T03:19:47","slug":"national-guard-cybersecurity-units-activated-in-14-states-ahead-of-midterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/national-guard-cybersecurity-units-activated-in-14-states-ahead-of-midterms\/","title":{"rendered":"National Guard Cybersecurity Units Activated in 14 States Ahead of Midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnational-guard-cybersecurity-units-activated-in-14-states-ahead-of-midterms%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1726673&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Cybersecurity units from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-national-guard\">National Guard<\/a> will be activated in 14 U.S. states to help counter any threats to\u00a0election officials\u2019 networks ahead of, during, and following the Nov. 8 elections, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>The 14 include battleground states\u00a0Arizona, Iowa, and Pennsylvania, as well as\u00a0Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina,\u00a0New Mexico, New York, Washington, and West Virginia,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/11\/04\/nationa-guard-midterm-election-cybersecurity-00065236\">Politico<\/a>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n<p>Brig. Gen. Gent Welsh, the commander of the Washington Air National Guard, said at a virtual media briefing on Nov. 4 that not every state is doing it, but states that are activating these units \u201chave invested in cyber talent and cyber missions for years,\u201d according to outlet\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/national-guard-cyber-units-midterm-election\/\">Statescoop<\/a>, which reports on\u00a0technology-related news in government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you don\u2019t have a cyber unit in your state, you\u2019re not in a good position to help them protect elections,\u201d\u00a0Welsh said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that\u00a0the National Guard\u2019s participation in election cybersecurity activities \u201cdoes add an air of credibility to what\u2019s out there,\u201d noting that the National Guard \u201cis still one of the most trusted institutions in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018As Secure Elections as Possible\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>The plan comes after eight states received support from cyber units in the National Guard during the primary elections that took place earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>According to the outlets, there are 38 dedicated cyber units within the Air and Army National Guard across the United States that work to help state and local officials on cyber-related issues, such as network assessments and risk mitigation. The cyber units collectively comprise more than 2,200 personnel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur goal is to make sure we have as secure elections as possible. We are at the really beginning stages of this,\u201d said Air Force Maj. Gen. Rich Neely, head of the Illinois National Guard,\u00a0 Statescoop reported.<\/p>\n<p>National Guard officials will receive security updates from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in their work to support the elections, Politico reported.<\/p>\n<p>According to its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisa.gov\/about-cisa\">website<\/a>, CISA was created in 2018 during the Trump administration to work with government and industry partners to defend against current and predicted threats to\u00a0cyber and physical infrastructure, including\u00a0election infrastructure.<\/p>\n<h2>No Indication of Potential Disruption: CISA Director<\/h2>\n<p>CISA Director Jen Easterly has repeatedly said she doesn\u2019t expect any major disruptions to the midterms.<\/p>\n<p>She said at a Nov. 1 event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies that there is \u201cno information credible or specific about efforts to disrupt or compromise\u201d election infrastructure and that she was \u201cvery confident that we have done everything we can to make election infrastructure as secure and as resilient as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Neely said that he and his team are \u201cnot expecting to see anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut much like we did after Jan. 6, if the Guard\u2019s called in, the Guard responds as needed,\u201d he said as reported by Statescoop. \u201cWe\u2019re not expecting anything with what we\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Army Maj. Gen. M. Todd Hunt, the adjutant general of the North Carolina National Guard, said at the Nov. 4 media briefing that his state has a\u00a0joint cyber mission center that will facilitate communication between the state\u2019s cyber unit, its departments of\u00a0Information Technology and\u00a0Emergency Management, as well as federal contacts from CISA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>According to the outlets, Hunt said there will be 25 National Guard members on duty in the cyber unit for North Carolina on Election Day, up from the usual core team of 10. The extra members will include\u00a0federal and emergency management partners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will surge during the election to ensure that we have 24-hour coverage throughout this whole process,\u201d Hunt said, according to Politico. \u201cWe are citizen soldiers, we live in this state, and we do have a vested interest in our state elections as well as our federal elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-mimi-nguyen-ly\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/WEB_MimiNguyen_1.jpg\" alt=\"Mimi Nguyen Ly\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mimi Nguyen Ly covers world news with a focus on U.S. news. Contact her at mimi.nl@epochtimes.com<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cybersecurity units from the National Guard will be activated in 14 U.S. states to help counter any threats to\u00a0election officials\u2019 networks ahead of, during, and following the Nov. 8 elections,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1693127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1726673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1726673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1693127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1726673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1726673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1726673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}