WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The nation鈥檚 cybersecurity agency has played in helping states shore up the defenses of their voting systems, but its election mission appears uncertain amid sustained criticism from Republicans and key figures in the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump has not named a new head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and for the first time since it was formed, there are no plans for anyone in its leadership to address the main annual gathering of the nation's secretaries of state, which was being held this week in Washington.
On Thursday, a panel on cyberthreats included an update from an FBI official who said the threats remained consistent.
鈥淚鈥檓 often asked what the FBI sees as the top cyberthreats facing the U.S., and really the FBI鈥檚 answer for the last several years has been the same: China, China, China, ransomware, Russia, Iran, North Korea,鈥� Cynthia Kaiser, a deputy assistant director in the bureau's Cyber Division, told attendees at the National Association of Secretaries of State meeting.
Trump鈥檚 new homeland security secretary, , said during her Senate hearing that CISA had strayed 鈥渇ar off mission.鈥� She pledged to work with senators 鈥渟hould you wish to rein them in鈥� with legislation.
The agency during the first Trump administration is charged with protecting the nation鈥檚 critical infrastructure, from dams and nuclear power plants to banks and voting systems. It is under the Department of Homeland Security, but CISA is a separate agency with its own Senate-confirmed director.
The agency has received bipartisan praise from many state and local election officials, but Trump and his allies remain angry over its efforts to counter and the coronavirus pandemic. The agency鈥檚 first director, Chris Krebs, was fired by Trump after Krebs highlighted by a group of election officials that called the 2020 election the in American history.鈥�
That drew Trump鈥檚 ire as he was contesting . Republicans have claimed repeatedly since then that CISA had worked with social media companies to censor conservative viewpoints on issues related to elections and health.
Agency officials have disputed that: 鈥淐ISA does not censor, has never censored,鈥� the agency's then-director, , said last fall in . Nevertheless, Republicans continue to blame the agency and insist changes are necessary.
鈥淛oe Biden鈥檚 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was more focused on undermining President Trump than they were protecting our own critical infrastructure,鈥� Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., chair of the newly formed House subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, said in a social media post last week.
During the 2020 election, agency officials worked with states to help them notify social media companies about misinformation spreading on their platforms, but they have said they never instructed or sought to coerce those companies to act. For the 2024 election, CISA and other federal agencies alerted the public to various foreign misinformation campaigns, including a fake video purporting to show the mishandling of ballots in Pennsylvania.
In recent months, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has and announced plans to the company鈥檚 fact-checking program.
One of the first actions Trump took after returning to the White House on Jan. 20 was a signing of 鈥渆nding federal censorship鈥� and instructing his attorney general to investigate federal actions under the previous administration and to propose "remedial actions."
, a conservative blueprint for a Republican administration, recommended that CISA be moved to the Transportation Department and focused solely on protecting government networks and coordinating the security of critical infrastructure.
It said the agency should only help states assess whether they have 鈥済ood cyber hygiene in their hardware and software in preparation for an election 鈥� nothing more.鈥� That's what the agency has been doing in recent years, by providing training and security reviews.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican who has been mentioned as a potential candidate to lead CISA, praised the agency's cybersecurity work with the states and said he was confident Noem would keep it focused on that mission. He said complaints about its role in combatting misinformation were 鈥渙ld news.鈥�
鈥淐ISA recognized that is not their core mission and they鈥檝e pivoted away from that kind of work,鈥� LaRose said.
Voting systems were designated after an effort by Russia in 2016 to interfere in that year鈥檚 presidential election, which included scanning state voter registration databases for vulnerabilities.
Some state election officials were initially resistant to the idea of federal assistance. But many now credit the agency and federal money with helping them improve security ahead of the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat who is president of the secretaries of state association, said it was understandable that a new administration needed time to decide what role it wanted for the cybersecurity agency. But he hoped its work with the states would continue, both in improving election security and highlighting disinformation campaigns.
鈥淲e need to know if a foreign adversary is seeking to misdirect and mislead Americans on any subject, whether it鈥檚 elections or science or national security or foreign policy,鈥� he said in a phone interview Thursday from Minnesota before he was scheduled to leave for Washington.
Christina A. Cassidy, The Associated Press
