Center for Internet Security Announces New Elections Leadership Team
Former secretary of state to head CIS elections security mission;
Two state elections directors with more than two decades combined in elections administration to assume elections leadership roles.
EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y., Sept. 21, 2021 – The Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS®), a community-driven nonprofit which supports the cybersecurity needs of U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) government organizations, today announced three new additions to lead its elections security efforts.
Former Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar will head the CIS elections security mission as the Vice President of Election Operations and Support. Kentucky State Board of Elections Executive Director Jared Dearing will serve as the Senior Director of Elections Security. Longstanding South Carolina Elections Director Marci Andino will assume a leadership role as the Director of the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (EI-ISAC®).
“CIS is delighted to have Kathy Boockvar, Jared Dearing, and Marci Andino assume key leadership roles in our work supporting U.S. elections organizations,” said CIS President and Chief Executive Officer, John Gilligan. “Kathy, Jared, and Marci come to CIS with extensive recent experience advancing the security of our elections infrastructure, and we are thrilled to be able to leverage that experience for the benefit of our EI-ISAC members and the elections infrastructure at large.”
Kathy Boockvar previously served as co-chair of both the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) Business Services Committee and the NASS Elections Committee. In her capacity as Pennsylvania Secretary of State, she implemented election law reforms, while certifying and deploying new voting systems to advance standards of security and accessibility. She will continue her work supporting elections integrity and the elections community in her role at CIS.
“Local and state elections officials are the heroes of our democracy. They work tirelessly to ensure that all eligible voters can safely and securely exercise their right to vote,” said Boockvar. “It is a distinct privilege to join CIS and support these officials in this new capacity, continuing to strengthen elections security through our security best practices and tools, cross-sector collaboration, and expanded training and defenses.”
Jared Dearing has served as the Executive Director for the Kentucky State Board of Elections since 2017 and as the Vice President of the National Association of State Elections Directors (NASED) Board of Directors since February 2021. In this capacity, he has worked to promote elections security in Kentucky and across the country. He will continue his collaborative work in elections security at CIS.
“Having served as a state elections director and worked with elections directors nationwide through NASED, I’ve seen firsthand how much CIS and the EI-ISAC community has made an impact on promoting elections security at the state and local level. I’m excited to join the vital mission of serving the elections community in this new capacity,” said Dearing.
Marci Andino has served as South Carolina’s Chief Election Official and Executive Director of the State Election Commission since 2003. In that role, she oversaw all elections operations in the state, implementing statewide modernized voter registration, an election management system, and online voter registration. She is also a former President of NASED. Andino will lend her extensive experience to support the cybersecurity and information sharing needs of members of the EI-ISAC.
Boockvar, Dearing, and Andino will look to improve and expand the resources CIS provides to support the needs of the elections community through security best practices tailored for the unique nature of elections security and information sharing and cybersecurity tools offered through the EI-ISAC.
“We will spend the upcoming days and weeks listening to EI-ISAC members and the larger elections community to understand what they need and how our team can assist,” said Andino. “For me, there is no more meaningful work than to support the free and fair elections in this country and the people who work to carry them out.”
About CIS
The Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS®) makes the connected world a safer place for people, businesses, and governments through our core competencies of collaboration and innovation. We are a community-driven nonprofit, responsible for the CIS Critical Security Controls® and CIS Benchmarks™, globally recognized best practices for securing IT systems and data. We lead a global community of IT professionals to continuously refine these standards to proactively safeguard against emerging threats. Our CIS Hardened Images® provide secure, on-demand, scalable computing environments in the cloud. CIS is home to the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (MS-ISAC®), the trusted resource for cyber threat prevention, protection, response, and recovery for U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) government entities, and the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (EI-ISAC®), which supports the cybersecurity needs of U.S. elections offices. To learn more, visit CISecurity.org or follow us on Twitter: @CISecurity.
Contact:
Jay Billington
518-516-3067