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Frank LaRose: “We fought off several pretty sophisticated DDoS attacks in…”

Featuring: Frank LaRose, Republican | Ohio Secretary of State

Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security

Published February 6, 2025 | Video Starts at 15:25

We also raised our capabilities at our boards of elections as it relates to detecting and deterring distributed denial of service attacks. That has proven useful because We fought off several pretty sophisticated DDoS attacks in the last few years. We require penetration testing, which is done by our federal partners at each of our county boards of election. Of course, that's an ongoing thing. (15:25–15:31)

CLAIM

Asserts that Ohio election systems have successfully defended against multiple sophisticated DDoS attacks.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Frank LaRose

“Ohio was the first state in the country to create the Ohio Cyber Reserve.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 02:21-02:30
“The Ohio Cyber Reserve has been in operation for seven years.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 02:21-02:30
“I serve as Ohio's Chief Elections officer.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 03:26-03:29
“Ohio has 88 county boards of elections.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 03:26-03:34
“The most problematic countries for cyber issues are Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 05:40-05:48
“The predominant cyber threat actors tend to be China, Russia, and Iran.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 05:40-05:48
“In 2017, the US federal government declared that election infrastructure is a sector for critical infrastructure.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 06:05-06:15
“My team spent $0 and about 20 minutes of time to do a very realistic deep fake of me.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 07:31-07:41
“The structure of elections in Ohio is highly decentralized.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 08:07-08:09
“When I came in as Secretary of State in 2019, I recognized...we were...at war with foreign adversaries who wanted to undermine the trust in…”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 08:48-09:10
“We were able to leverage about $10 million in federal funding and grant that money out to the counties.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 10:24-10:31
“Within six months, they had all completed those [58 security checklist items].”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 11:05-11:09
“I was the first Secretary of State in the country to hire a CISO, a Chief Information Security Officer.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 12:03-12:10
“I also was the first Secretary of State in the country to ask people to hack me.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 12:32-12:37
“We created our vulnerability Disclosure agreement which is still at the bottom of our website.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 12:59-13:06
“Every election official in Ohio is now subject to a background check as well as ongoing training.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 14:21-14:27
“We require penetration testing, which is done by our federal partners at each of our county boards of election.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 15:30-15:36
“We had each of our boards of elections transition to a .gov domain.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 15:38-15:43
“We've required each board of elections to install an Albert intrusion monitoring system.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 16:16-16:23
“We require only domestic based vendors. We will not work with foreign based companies as it relates to something as crucial as our elections…”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 19:06-19:19
“We have built in redundant systems so that if you lose something you have a backup to include communication system.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 20:09-20:16
“Each county board of elections now has a state emergency radio.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 20:31-20:36
“We have fended off a number of pretty significant attacks in 2019.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 20:48-20:54
“We've become recognized as the example to follow and other states are now looking to emulate Ohio's example.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 21:12-21:20
“The US Department of Homeland Security has said... follow Ohio's model when talking to other secretaries of state.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 21:20-21:30
“Both the previous Trump administration and the Biden administration said follow Ohio's model.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 21:22-21:28
“We've had some pretty major ransomware attacks hit county government... the only office unaffected was the county Board of Elections.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 21:43-22:06
“We've set up a rapid response effort [to debunk false information].”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 22:50-22:53
“It's part of the cyber reserve legislation that I did, is a series of cyber ranges throughout the state.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 26:02-26:08
“One of the largest [cyber ranges] is at the University of Cincinnati.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 26:11-26:15
“We are part of the EI ISAC, the election infrastructure ISAC.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 27:34-27:40
“County boards of elections have to do what I say because I have directive authority over them.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 28:08-28:14
“We have offered the Department of Homeland Security to co-locate somebody with us on election day.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 28:20-28:33
“There are a lot of opportunities [in cybersecurity] and they are very well paying.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 30:03-30:07
“The Cyber Reserve is also in and of itself sort of a workforce development opportunity.”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 30:51-30:57
“The kind of dedicated, smart, patriotic people that are getting out of the military are an ideal set of candidates for cybersecurity…”
Ohio SoS Frank LaRose discusses his touchstone model program for election integrity and security | Uploaded February 6, 2025 | 32:33-32:41