S. HRG. 115–347 OPEN HEARING: ELECTION SECURITY HEARING BEFORE THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2018 Printed for the use of the Select Committee on Intelligence ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 29–480 PDF WASHINGTON : 2018 VerDate Sep 11 2014 12:16 Oct 01, 2018 Jkt 028949 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 C:\DOCS\29480.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE [Established by S. Res. 400, 94th Cong., 2d Sess.] RICHARD BURR, North Carolina, Chairman MARK R. WARNER, Virginia, Vice Chairman JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California MARCO RUBIO, Florida RON WYDEN, Oregon SUSAN COLLINS, Maine MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico ROY BLUNT, Missouri ANGUS KING, Maine JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma JOE MANCHIN, West Virginia TOM COTTON, Arkansas KAMALA HARRIS, California JOHN CORNYN, Texas MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky, Ex Officio CHUCK SCHUMER, New York, Ex Officio JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona, Ex Officio JACK REED, Rhode Island, Ex Officio CHRIS JOYNER, Staff Director MICHAEL CASEY, Minority Staff Director KELSEY STROUD BAILEY, Chief Clerk (II) VerDate Sep 11 2014 12:16 Oct 01, 2018 Jkt 028949 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\29480.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER CONTENTS MARCH 21, 2018 OPENING STATEMENTS Burr, Hon. Richard, Chairman, a U.S. Senator from North Carolina ................ 1 Warner, Mark R., Vice Chairman, a U.S. Senator from Virginia ........................ 2 WITNESSES Panel 1 Nielsen, Kirstjen, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security ........................ 4 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 7 Johnson, Jeh Charles, former Secretary, Department of Homeland Security .... 14 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 15 Panel 2 Manfra, Jeanette, Assistant Secretary, National Protection and Programs Directorate, Office of Cyber Security and Communications, Department of Homeland Security .......................................................................................... 48 Condos, Jim, Secretary of State, State of Vermont .............................................. 50 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 52 Cohen, Amy, Executive Director, National Association of State Election Direc- tors ........................................................................................................................ 57 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 61 Rosenbach, Eric, Co-Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School ....................................................................... 66 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 69 SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL Prepared Statement of Thomas Hicks, Chairman, U.S. Election Assistance Commission ........................................................................................................... 98 (III) VerDate Sep 11 2014 12:16 Oct 01, 2018 Jkt 028949 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\29480.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER VerDate Sep 11 2014 12:16 Oct 01, 2018 Jkt 028949 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\29480.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER OPEN HEARING: ELECTION SECURITY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2018 U.S. SENATE, SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:34 a.m. in Room SH–216, Hart Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard Burr (Chair- man of the Committee) presiding. Present: Burr, Warner, Risch, Rubio, Collins, Blunt, Lankford, Cotton, Cornyn, Feinstein, Wyden, Heinrich, King, Manchin, Har- ris, and Reed. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD BURR, CHAIRMAN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH CAROLINA Chairman BURR. I’d like to call this hearing to order, and at the beginning of this hearing I would like to thank all the members, the witnesses, the press, and those visitors that we have today, with the inclement weather that was predicted and some has fall- en. We thought it was important to continue this hearing, so I’m grateful to each of our witnesses. And to those that couldn’t make it because of flights today, we have tried to adjust so we’ve got the appropriate witnesses for the second panel as well. Today the committee convenes the first open hearing to reflect the progress and preliminary recommendations and findings of our investigation into Russia’s attempt to interfere in the 2016 U.S. elections. I’d like to welcome our two distinguished witnesses: Sec- retary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen; and former Sec- retary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. Jeh, I am grateful for the service that you provided to your country in a number of places. And, Secretary Nielsen, I have enjoyed very much the time that you have been there and look forward to what we can accom- plish between this committee and the Department of Homeland Se- curity in the future. I want to thank both of you for being here—for being here to- gether, which I think is unprecedented, and I am grateful to the Administration for agreeing. It speaks to the importance of the issue and sends a message that transcends partisanship. The Vice Chairman and I asked the two of you to appear to- gether to tell the story of what happened in 2016, how the Depart- ment reacted then and how it has evolved and what it is doing today. I think your collective remarks will show the remarkable evolution of an agency that is playing an increasingly important role to support the states. (1) VerDate Sep 11 2014 12:16 Oct 01, 2018 Jkt 028949 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\29480.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER 2 When this cyber threat surfaced in 2016, many struggled to un- derstand the attack, the intentions behind it, and how to respond. By the beginning of 2018, however, DHS has made great strides to- wards better understanding elections, better understanding the states, and providing assistance that makes a difference to the se- curity of our elections. But there’s more to do. There’s a long wait time for DHS premier services. States are still not getting all the information they feel they need to secure their systems. The Department’s ability to col- lect all the information needed to fully understand the problem is an open question, and attributing cyber attacks quickly and au- thoritatively is a continuing challenge. Secretary Nielsen, as you appropriately note in your statement, the administration of elections is the responsibility of the State and local officials. And the support your agency provides is on a vol- untary basis. What we’ve learned is that states will only engage with the Department if they feel there’s value. And I’m confident that the customer service, if you can call it that, and the value you’re providing to your State partners is improving every single day. Securing our elections requires immediate action and the ur- gency is reflected in the committee’s recommendations released yesterday. We’ve convened today’s hearing, in the midst of a snow- storm of sorts, to speak to the American people publicly about the threat posed by Russia and the efforts by our Federal, State, and local governments to protect against it. This issue is urgent. If we start to fix these problems tomorrow, we still might not be in time to save the system for 2016 and 2020. I understand, Secretary Nielsen, you have a hard stop, some- thing about a Cabinet meeting, and we respect those Cabinet meet- ings when the President calls it. So in the interest of time, I will end there and I will turn to the Vice Chairman for any remarks he might have. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARK R. WARNER, VICE CHAIRMAN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM VIRGINIA Vice Chairman WARNER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to welcome the witnesses as well. Today’s hearing comes at a critical time. The committee remains in the midst of our bipartisan investigation into the Russian at- tacks during the 2016 election, and we still have more work to do. However, we as a committee felt it was important to move out our initial findings and recommendations on securing our election in- frastructure, given the upcoming elections in November. Our main question today is, how do we protect 2018 elections? And the threat is real and growing. During the 2016 campaign, we saw unprecedented targeting of election infrastructure by Russian actors. Russian hackers were able to penetrate Illinois’ voter reg- istration database and access 90,000 voter registration records. They also attempted to target the election systems of at least 20 other states. The intelligence community’s assessment last January concluded that Russia secured and maintained access to multiple elements of U.S. State and local election boards. VerDate Sep 11 2014 12:16 Oct 01, 2018 Jkt 028949 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\29480.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER 3 The truth is clear that 2016 will not be the last of their attempts. Just weeks ago, we heard from all our top intelligence officials tes- tifying before this committee that the Russians will continue to at- tack our elections. Unfortunately, there are signs that the Kremlin is becoming more brazen. As we saw recently, the Putin regime was behind an assassination