Infrastructure — Election Security Glossary
50 election security terms in the Infrastructure category, with definitions sourced from NIST, CISA, EAC, and 30+ authoritative documents.
Browse all 50 terms in Infrastructure
Critical Infrastructure
System and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the U.S.
Cloud Computing
A model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and…
Dns
domain name system.
Domain Name System
The system by which Internet domain names and addresses are tracked and regulated as defined by IETF RFC 1034 and other related RFCs.
Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (scada)
A generic name for a computerized system that is capable of gathering and processing data and applying operational controls over long distances.
Asset
A major application, general support system, high impact program, physical plant, mission critical system, personnel, equipment, or a logically related group of systems.
Comsec Facility
The space used for generating, storing, repairing, or using COMSEC material.
Critical Infrastructure Resilience Strategy
A proposed strategy that will set programmatic and budgetary priorities for a five-year national risk management cycle.
Data Hosting
The activity or business of providing hardware, systems, software, and infrastructure to store and manage access to data.
Ei Isac
Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center.
Election Infrastructure
Information and communications technology and systems used by or on behalf of the federal government or a state or local government in managing the election process, including…
Enterprise Service
A set of one or more computer applications and middleware systems hosted on computer hardware that provides standard information systems capabilities to end users and hosted…
By ESG Editorial Team · Drawing on CISA, EAC, and 25+ sources on election infrastructure and critical infrastructure designation
Election infrastructure is the underlying set of systems, facilities, and services that elections depend on. It includes the buildings where election offices are housed, the warehouses where voting equipment is stored between elections, the data centers that host voter registration systems, the communications networks that connect precincts to central tabulation, and the power and connectivity that keep all of this running.
Why this category matters for election security is that the integrity of an election depends on the integrity of the infrastructure it runs on. A compromised election management system, a warehouse that has been physically breached, or a power outage on election night are not abstract threats. They are realistic failure modes that election offices must plan for.
Federal designation of election infrastructure as critical infrastructure (in 2017) brought election systems into the same framework as power grids, water systems, and financial networks. That designation brought with it access to threat intelligence, incident response support, and prioritization for federal resources. State and local election offices have used that access to harden their infrastructure.
The terminology in this category covers both the infrastructure itself and the practice of protecting it. The concepts here are concrete. They describe the systems, facilities, and services that election administration depends on.
Key Concepts
Election Infrastructure
The systems, facilities, and services that support election administration, designated as critical infrastructure by the U.S. government in 2017.
Secure Storage
Locked, monitored, and access-controlled storage for ballots, voting equipment, and election records between elections.
Network Security
The protection of election data as it moves through the networks that connect precincts, jurisdictions, and central systems.
How These Terms Relate
These concepts together describe the underlying infrastructure that elections depend on. The terminology here covers both the infrastructure itself and the practice of protecting it. The unifying theme is that infrastructure is foundational. The strongest procedures in the world are not effective if the systems they run on are unreliable or compromised. The election-specific application of that principle is the work of ensuring that the buildings, networks, and systems on which elections run are themselves secure and resilient.
Related categories
37 terms
The network-level infrastructure that connects election systems.
Hardware44 terms
The physical devices that comprise election infrastructure.
Software39 terms
The code that runs on election infrastructure.
Physical Security23 terms
The controls that protect election infrastructure from physical threats.
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