Mr. Krebs’s staff labored with states to scan and patch methods for vulnerabilities, lock up voter registration databases and voter rolls, change d
Mr. Krebs’s staff labored with states to scan and patch methods for vulnerabilities, lock up voter registration databases and voter rolls, change default passwords, activate two-factor authentication, and print out paper backups, all to construct up “resilience” in case of assault. He was defending, he mentioned, “the crown jewels of election administration.”
When the pandemic upended every little thing, Mr. Krebs’s staff shifted focus to securing vote-by-mail methods, regardless of the president’s marketing campaign once more them. That was when Mr. Krebs’s company obtained within the White Home’s cross hairs.
In interviews, Mr. Krebs countered Mr. Trump by saying mail-in voting would make the election safer by making a paper path, important for audits to determine that each authorized poll was appropriately counted.
It additionally made state registration databases extra important: an assault that froze or sabotaged voter-registration information — by switching addresses, marking registered voters as unregistered or deleting voters fully — risked mass digital disenfranchisement. Mr. Krebs made it his private mission to see to it that each final registration database was sealed up.
When Mr. Trump known as mail-in voting a “fraud and a sham” in his televised debate with Mr. Biden, now the president-elect, in September, Mr. Krebs contradicted the president at each flip, once more with out mentioning his title.
“We’ve obtained loads of confidence that the poll’s as safe because it’s ever been,” Mr. Krebs informed any reporter who requested.
On Election Day, Mr. Krebs and senior officers held briefings with reporters each few hours to apprise them of any threats. Chad Wolf, the secretary of homeland safety, a Trump loyalist and Mr. Krebs’s boss, even appeared at one to reward Mr. Krebs’s work. Regardless of small hiccups, Mr. Krebs reassured journalists that there was no main overseas interference or indicators of systemic fraud.
“It’s simply one other Tuesday on the web,” he mentioned.