Election security has never been more scrutinized than the 2020 presidential elections. It left election boards fighting not only to protect the election from outside influences but also to justify the legitimacy of their own work.

President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden have a few competing plans for the nation’s cybersecurity — though experts say they largely expect the next U.S. president to stay the course.

Faced with mounting cybersecurity needs headed toward the presidential election, but lacking the financial resources to build out a more robust internal IT staff, the North Carolina State Board of Elections last year hired a third-party vendor to provide the functions of a chief information security officer as a service, rather than an individual official.

If the electrical grid is knocked out for long periods, the damage to the American economy would be insurmountable. And the country’s enemies know that. That is why its brain trust is dedicated to insulating the transmission network from both physical and cyber-attacks.

EVERY CATASTROPHE comes as a shock, but many shouldn’t come as a surprise. Just as we knew a pandemic was a possibility yet failed to plan for it, power-grid collapse is a threat we should be prepared for — but aren’t.