The House Intelligence Committee last Thursday approved a bill directing the Director of National Intelligence to publish on line a report on foreign counterintelligence and cyber security threats to elections for federal offices.
The report will include a description of the counterintelligence and cyber efforts against federal elections, best practices that campaigns and use to counter these efforts, and identify “publicly available resources” that can be used to protect against these threats, says the committee’s FY ’18 Intelligence Authorization Act (H.R. 3180).
For House and Senate elections in 2018, any reports are due within 60 days of the bill becoming law. The bill was approved by unanimous voice vote. For all federal elections in subsequent years, reports would be due at least one year before the election.
The DNI will work with the undersecretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis and the FBI director on the reports.
In instances where the FBI and Department of Homeland Security believe a particular election campaign is facing a “heightened threat,” the bill says the “Director and the Under Secretary, consistent with the protection of sources and methods, may make available additional information to the appropriate representatives of such campaign.”\
Separately, the bill also requires the DNI to produce a report on the potential for a voluntary cyber exchange program between the intelligence community and private technology companies for cyber security professionals on a temporary basis.